Google Trends for Pain Search Terms in the World’s Most Populated Regions Before and After the First Recorded COVID-19 Case: Infodemiological Study

Szilagyi, Istvan S.; Ullrich, Torsten; Lang-Illievich, Kordula; Klivinyi, Christoph; Schittek, Gregor Alexander; Simonis, Holger; Bornemann‐Cimenti, Helmar

doi:10.2196/27214

Cited by 18 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…Self-medication is the administering of medicines to treat self-recognized symptoms, psychological ailments, and first aid based on prior knowledge, without consulting a physician ( 11 ). The growing influence of social media has let individuals explore COVID-related symptoms, pain keywords, and treatments worldwide, as well as in Pakistan, as revealed by an infodemiological study on Google trends ( 12 ). Adding to this is the availability of over the counter (OTC) drugs in pharmacies across Pakistan which has been the highest contributor to a self-medicating prevalence of 81% in the populous Karachi.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Self-Medication Practices in Medical Students During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Cross-Sectional Analysis

Yasmin

Asghar

Naeem

et al. 2022

Front. Public Health

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Background and ObjectivesDuring the pandemic, the growing influence of social media, accessibility of over-the-counter medications, and fear of contracting the virus may have led to self-medication practices among the general public. Medical students are prone to such practices due to relevant background knowledge, and access to drugs. This study was carried out to determine and analyze the prevalence of self-medication practices among medical students in Pakistan.Materials and MethodsThis descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted online in which the participants were asked about the general demographics, their self-medication practices and the reasons to use. All participants were currently enrolled in a medical college pursuing medical or pharmacy degree. Non-probability sampling technique was used to recruit participants.ResultsA total of 489 respondents were included in the final analysis. The response rate was 61%. Majority of the respondents were females and 18–20 years of age. Self-medication was quite prevalent in our study population with 406 out of 489 individuals (83.0%) were using any of the drugs since the start of pandemic. The most commonly utilized medications were Paracetamol (65.2%) and multivitamins (56.0%). The reasons reported for usage of these medications included cold/flu, or preventive measures for COVID-19. The common symptoms reported for self-medication included fever (67.9%), muscle pain (54.0%), fatigue (51.7%), sore throat (46.6%), and cough (44.4%). Paracetamol was the most commonly used drug for all symptoms. Female gender, being in 3rd year of medical studies, and individuals with good self-reported health were found more frequent users of self-medication practices.ConclusionOur study revealed common self-medication practices among medical and pharmacy students. It is a significant health issue especially during the pandemic times, with high consumption reported as a prevention or treating symptoms of COVID-19.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Self-Medication Practices in Medical Students During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Cross-Sectional Analysis

Yasmin

Asghar

Naeem

et al. 2022

Front. Public Health

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“…To address such challenges, monitoring the health-seeking behavior in the form of public interest reflected by web search queries has emerged as an important tool for early detection of health problems occurrences over certain periods and geographies 21 . Health facilities and insurance firms could potentially report relevant data to highlight incidences of headaches occurring during the pandemic.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Furthermore, the Internet has become an increasingly important source of health information 28 , with over a billion health-related queries passing through Google daily, which accounts for an estimated 7% of Google's daily searches as of 2019 30 . Consequently, Google Trends has been increasingly used over the last decade in the health and medical research 21 , 31 . Moreover, it is further estimated that the pandemic has increased Internet searches for health information in 2020 compared to 2019 (Statistics Netherlands (CBS) 32 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Infodemiological study on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on increased headache incidences at the world level

Tudor

Şova

2022

Sci Rep

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The analysis of the public interest as reflected by Internet queries has become a highly valuable tool in many fields. The Google Trends platform, providing timely and informative data, has become increasingly popular in health and medical studies. This study explores whether Internet search frequencies for the keyword “headache” have been increasing after the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, which could signal an increased incidence of the health problem. Weekly search volume data for 5 years spanning February 2017 to February 2022 were sourced from Google Trends. Six statistical and machine-learning methods were implemented on training and testing sets via pre-set automated forecasting algorithms. Holt-Winters has been identified as overperforming in predicting web query trends through several accuracy measures and the DM test for forecasting superiority and has been employed for producing the baseline level in the estimation of excess query level over the first pandemic wave. Findings indicate that the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in an increased global incidence of headache (as proxied by related web queries) in the first 6 months after its outbreak, with an excess occurrence of 4.53% globally. However, the study also concludes that the increasing trend in headache incidence at the world level would have continued in the absence of the pandemic, but it has been accelerated by the pandemic event. Results further show mixed correlations at the country-level between COVID-19 infection rates and population web-search behavior, suggesting that the increased headache incidence is caused by pandemic-related factors (i.e. increased stress and mental health problems), rather than a direct effect of coronavirus infections. Other noteworthy findings entail that in the Philippines, the term "headache" was the most frequently searched term in the period spanning February 2020 to February 2022, indicating that headache occurrences are a significant aspect that defines population health at the country level. High relative interest is also detected in Kenya and South Africa after the pandemic outbreak. Additionally, research findings indicate that the relative interest has decreased in some countries (i.e. US, Canada, and Australia), whereas it has increased in others (i.e. India and Pakistan) after the pandemic outbreak. We conclude that observing Internet search habits can provide timely information for policymakers on collective health trends, as opposed to ex-post statistics, and can furthermore yield valuable information for the pain management drug market key players about aggregate consumer behavior.

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“…Furthermore, because Google Trends uses only a percentage of searches without disclosing the sample sizes, there is most likely a discrepancy between online search for BPH treatment and real BPH-related treatment activities, which might make this study liable to a sampling error. 19 Second, the anonymous nature of normalized search volume does not make it possible to determine the intent of user searches. Information regarding related searches does provide some insights for keywords that may have multiple usages.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Public Interest in Prostatic Artery Embolization: An Analysis of Search Query Data

Cusumano¹,

Mathevosian²,

Sayre³

et al. 2022

RSP

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Background: Prostatic artery embolization (PAE) is an emerging treatment for benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). However, changes in public interest in PAE over time, especially relative to interest in alternative BPH treatments, are difficult to assess. The online tool for analysis of the popularity of top search queries (Google Trends; Alphabet Inc) provides a relative search volume (RSV) of specified keywords and insight about patterns of user searches. Purpose:The purpose of this study is to assess changes in public interest in PAE over time and compare them with changes in public interest in alternative BPH treatments as indicated by search queries. Material and Methods:Using Google Trends, we identified the RSV of specified keywords within search queries submitted between 2010 and 2019 in the United States. The RSVs of keywords with high search volume were identified and normalized on a scale of values from 0 to 100. Interest in PAE was assessed by comparing RSVs and trends of the keyword PAE as well as of other prostate-treatment-related keywords. Prostate embolization was a PAE-related, BPH-treatment-specific keyword with the highest average RSV. A linear regression analysis was performed to characterize annual search trends of the use of these keywords. Subsequently, the annual search trend of prostate embolization was compared with that of keywords related to transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP) and minimally invasive surgical treatments (MISTs). Results:The mean annual RSV of prostate embolization increased by 8.6 fold between 2010 and 2019. However, during this period, the mean RSV of the keywords transurethral resection of the prostate and TURP were 3.6 and 49.3 times higher, respectively (P<0.0001), than the mean annual RSV of prostate embolization. Moreover, the MIST-related keywords rezum and urolift showed respective mean RSVs 3.1 and 9.0 times higher (P<0.0001) than the mean annual RSV of prostate embolization.Conclusions: Search query data can elucidate public interest in interventional radiologic (IR) procedures. An increase in RSVs of PAE keywords over time suggests increasing public knowledge of and about the procedure. However, the RSVs of PAE keywords is far lower than the RSVs of keywords related to urologic surgeries, suggesting the need for continued efforts to educate patients and providers about the nature and the values of IR procedures.

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Google Trends for Pain Search Terms in the World’s Most Populated Regions Before and After the First Recorded COVID-19 Case: Infodemiological Study

Cited by 18 publications

References 33 publications

Self-Medication Practices in Medical Students During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Cross-Sectional Analysis

Self-Medication Practices in Medical Students During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Cross-Sectional Analysis

Infodemiological study on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on increased headache incidences at the world level

Public Interest in Prostatic Artery Embolization: An Analysis of Search Query Data

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