COVID-19 pandemic in the Middle East countries: coronavirus-seeking behavior versus coronavirus-related publications

Abstract

The spread of COVID-19 has created a fundamental need for coordinated mechanisms responding to outbreaks in different sectors. One of the main sectors relates to information supply and demand in the middle of this pandemic in the digital environment. It could be called an infodemiology. It is known as a promising approach to solving the challenge in the present age. At this level, the purpose of this article is to investigate the COVID-19 related search process by field research. Data were retrieved from Google Trends in Middle Eastern countries alongside scientific research output of Middle Eastern scientists towards COVID-19 in Web of Science, Scopus, and PubMed. Daily COVID-19 cases and deaths were retrieved from the World Health Organization. We searched for descriptive statistical analyses to detect coronavirus-seeking behavior versus coronavirus releases in the Middle East in 2020. Findings show that people in the Middle East use various keyword solutions to search for COVID-19 in Google. There is a significant correlation between coronavirus confirmed cases and scientific productivity (January 2020-December 2020). Also, there is a positive association between the number of deaths and the number of scientific publications (except Jordan). It was a positive and significant association between online coronavirus-seeking behavior on Google (RSVs) and the confirmed cases (except Syria and Yemen). Furthermore, it was a positive relationship between RSVs and scientific productivity in the Middle East (except Bahrain and Qatar). From an infodemiological viewpoint, there is a significant correlation between coronavirus information demand and its information provision.

Comparing health consumer search behavior and scientific research productivity related to COVID-19 vaccines in the USA: an infodemiology study

“…The efforts toward vaccine development in the USA lead to scientific outputs in different databases. Besides, we can see the vast increasing growth of the public online searches on search engines, especially Google, concerning the COVID-19, related vaccines and their efficacies (SeyyedHosseini and BasirianJahromi, 2021). The health ISB on the online and public search queries on search engines may well be considered health information demand .…”

“…From an infodemiological viewpoint, there is a significant correlation between health information demand on COVID-19 vaccines by US users and its health information provided by the US scholars. Previously, some studies found a positive relationship between health information supply and demand for stomach cancer (SeyyedHosseini et al , 2018) and the COVID-19 pandemic in the Middle East countries (SeyyedHosseini and BasirianJahromi, 2021).…”

“…First, on the side of the policymakers and researchers who work in the health sector, and second, for the public in the USA. The development of the COVID-19 vaccines and their characteristics has had a significant impact on people's lives, including their health information search behavior (HISB) (SeyyedHosseini and BasirianJahromi, 2021). This concept is described as purposeful behavior performed by an individual to find required health information.…”

A koronavírus-járvány a közgazdasági szakirodalomban. Egy új határterület tudománymetriai elemzése

“…Vagyis az európai esetszámok emelkedése együtt járt a publikációk számának növekedésével. Hosseini-Jahromi [2021] hasonló eredményre jutott a Közel-Keleten (jordánia kivételével). A társadalomtudomány területén is pozitív kapcsolatot találtak a fertőzések és a közlemények száma között (Usman és szerzőtársai [2020], Zhang-Shaw [2020]), hiszen a koronavírus-járvány gazdasági és társadalmi vetületeit is kiemelten vizsgálták a kutatók az egészségügyi kérdések mellett.…”