Prediction of Zika-confirmed cases in Brazil and Colombia using Google Trends

Morsy, Sara; Đăng, Trần Ngọc; Kamel, Mohamed Gomaa; Zayan, Ahmad Helmy; Makram, Omar Mohamed; Elhady, Marwa; Hirayama, Kenji; Huy, Nguyen Tien

doi:10.1017/s0950268818002078

Cited by 36 publications

(31 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…Many examples involve early detection of other infectious outbreaks, such as Lyme disease 7 , a selection of tropical diseases in India 8 , syphilis 9 , HIV 10 , and Zika virus infections. 11 Over time, Google search engine data has increasingly been utilized to understand health behaviours. For example, it has been shown that changes in the volume of suicide-related searches may provide an early warning of changing mental health risk, [12][13][14] although the association is strongest for suicides among younger people and middle-aged women, both groups more likely to take overdoses (and thus require information on how to do it) than among older men, among whom hanging is more common.…”

Section: Applications Of Google Trends Tm In Population Health Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Google Trends: Opportunities and limitations in health and health policy research

2019

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Web search engines have become pervasive in recent years, obtaining information easily on a variety of topics, from customer services and goods to practical information. Beyond these search interests, however, there is growing interest in obtaining health advice or information online. As a result, health and health policy researchers are starting to take note of potential data sources for surveillance and research, such as Google Trends TM , a publicly available repository of information on real-time user search patterns. While research using Google Trends TM is growing, use of the dataset still remains limited. This paper offers an overview of the use of such data in a variety of contexts, while providing information on its strengths, limitations, and recommendations for further improvement.

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Section: Applications Of Google Trends Tm In Population Health Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Google Trends: Opportunities and limitations in health and health policy research

2019

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“…Google Trends (GT) is a free, open source tool launched in 2006 that provides customisable analysis of search term volumes entered into the Google search engine [13]. Previously, GT has successfully been used in epidemiological studies examining public health issues ranging from Zika to Lyme disease to vesicular stomatitis to Ebola to cancer screening [14][15][16][17][18]. GT data has also been used to assess changes in public interest in health-related topics in response to widespread media coverage [19,20].…”

Section: Background/introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The impact of monthly campaigns and other high-profile media coverage on public interest in 13 malignancies: a Google Trends analysis

Cohen

Tijerina³

2020

ecancer

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It is estimated that more than 600,000 people will die of cancer in the United States in 2020. Annual cancer diagnoses throughout the country are expected to rise in the coming years, which may further strain the American healthcare system. As such, it is vital that public health campaigns intended to reduce cancer morbidity and mortality are successful. Monthly cancer awareness campaigns have been used in the past to raise awareness and funding for various malignancies. One notable example is the ‘Pink October’ campaign to raise awareness for breast cancer. There has been limited study, however, on the effectiveness of cancer awareness campaigns for other cancers such as colorectal cancer, prostate cancer and cervical cancer. High-profile media coverage of celebrity cancer diagnoses and/or cancer-related deaths is another method by which knowledge of common cancers is dispersed to the public. In this study, we evaluate the impact of monthly cancer awareness campaigns as well as celebrity cancer diagnoses and/or deaths on Internet search traffic regarding various malignancies. We used the Google Trends database to evaluate public interest in 13 different cancers (and their respective cancer screening methods, when applicable) from January 2010 to June 2020. Public interest in 6 of 13 cancers (cervical cancer, colorectal cancer, skin cancer, ovarian cancer, breast cancer and lung cancer) was significantly higher in their respective awareness months when compared to the rest of the year. Furthermore, peak public interest for 9 of 13 cancers was associated with a media-event such as a monthly awareness campaign or celebrity diagnoses and/or death. Our findings illustrate the important role that the media plays in facilitating public interest in common cancers and their screening methods. Cancer awareness months can serve as an effective tool to increase Internet search traffic regarding a given malignancy. In the future, public health agencies can attempt to utilise increased search traffic to better educate the public, raise funds and improve enrolment in cancer screening programmes that reduce cancer morbidity and mortality.

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“…IP surveillance has increased in popularity in recent years as internet search queries are being used to model various infectious diseases around the world. Such studies include analyses of the West Nile virus in the U.S. 33 , and Zika virus in Brazil and Colombia 34 . Most research efforts in the field, however, have addressed influenza incidence trends.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tracking U.S. Pertussis Incidence: Correlation of Public Health Surveillance and Google Search Data Varies by State

Arehart

David

Dukić

2019

Sci Rep

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The Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Reports of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention document a raw proxy for counts of pertussis cases in the U.S., and the Project Tycho (PT) database provides an improved source of these weekly data. These data are limited because of reporting delays, variation in state-level surveillance practices, and changes over time in diagnosis methods. We aim to assess whether Google Trends (GT) search data track pertussis incidence relative to PT data and if sociodemographic characteristics explain some variation in the accuracy of state-level models. GT and PT data were used to construct auto-correlation corrected linear models for pertussis incidence in 2004–2011 for the entire U.S. and each individual state. The national model resulted in a moderate correlation (adjusted R2 = 0.2369, p < 0.05), and state models tracked PT data for some but not all states. Sociodemographic variables explained approximately 30% of the variation in performance of individual state-level models. The significant correlation between GT models and public health data suggests that GT is a potentially useful pertussis surveillance tool. However, the variable accuracy of this tool by state suggests GT surveillance cannot be applied in a uniform manner across geographic sub-regions.

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Prediction of Zika-confirmed cases in Brazil and Colombia using Google Trends

Cited by 36 publications

References 15 publications

Google Trends: Opportunities and limitations in health and health policy research

Google Trends: Opportunities and limitations in health and health policy research

The impact of monthly campaigns and other high-profile media coverage on public interest in 13 malignancies: a Google Trends analysis

Tracking U.S. Pertussis Incidence: Correlation of Public Health Surveillance and Google Search Data Varies by State

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