Time Trends of the Public’s Attention Toward Suicide During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Retrospective, Longitudinal Time-Series Study

Abstract

Background The COVID-19 pandemic has overwhelmed health care systems around the world. Emerging evidence has suggested that substantially few patients seek help for suicidality at clinical settings during the COVID-19 pandemic, which has elicited concerns of an imminent mental health crisis as the course of the pandemic continues to unfold. Clarifying the relationship between the public’s attention to knowledge about suicide and the public’s attention to knowledge about the COVID-19 pandemic may provide insight into developing prevention strategies for a putative surge of suicide in relation to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Objective The goal of this retrospective, longitudinal time-series study is to understand the relationship between temporal trends of interest for the search term “suicide” and those of COVID-19–related terms, such as “social distancing,” “school closure,” and “lockdown.” Methods We used the Google Trends platform to collect data on daily interest levels for search terms related to suicide, several other mental health-related issues, and COVID-19 over the period between February 14, 2020 and May 13, 2020. A correlational analysis was performed to determine the association between the search term ‘‘suicide’’ and COVID-19–related search terms in 16 countries. The Mann-Kendall test was used to examine significant differences between interest levels for the search term “suicide” before and after school closure. Results We found that interest levels for the search term “suicide” statistically significantly inversely correlated with interest levels for the search terms “COVID-19” or “coronavirus” in nearly all countries between February 14, 2020 and May 13, 2020. Additionally, search interest for the term ‘‘suicide’’ significantly and negatively correlated with that of many COVID-19–related search terms, and search interest varied between countries. The Mann-Kendall test was used to examine significant differences between search interest levels for the term “suicide” before and after school closure. The Netherlands (P=.19), New Zealand (P=.003), the United Kingdom (P=.006), and the United States (P=.049) showed significant negative trends in interest levels for suicide in the 2-week period preceding school closures. In contrast, interest levels for suicide had a significant positive trend in Canada (P<.001) and the United States (P=.002) after school closures. Conclusions The public’s attention to suicide might inversely correlate with the public’s attention to COVID-19–related issues. Additionally, several anticontagion policies, such as school closure, might have led to a turning point for mental health crises, because the attention to suicidality increased after restrictions were implemented. Our results suggest that an increased risk of suicidal ideation may ensue due to the ongoing anticontagion policies. Timely intervention strategies for suicides should therefore be an integral part of efforts to flatten the epidemic curve.

Mental Health Interest and Its Prediction during the COVID-19 Pandemic Using Google Trends

“…The ability to quickly track recent population behaviour might become an advantage, and in such an environment, GT is a powerful tool for tracing public interest. Other studies have used GT to monitor public concerns related to medical, social, and political issues [ 12 , 59 , 60 ]. This type of analysis is a modern alternative to smaller cross-sectional surveys with fewer data and longer time lag.…”

“…Google Trends (GT) is gaining popularity for exploring online social behavior and predicting disease outbreaks and pandemics. This novel tool has attracted a larger scientific community, and Trends analyses have been used in various scientific fields to predict relevant medical, social, and political findings [ 11 , 12 , 13 ]. As the situation during the COVID-19 pandemic changes rapidly, a real-time data analysis would be helpful to assess the current information about public interest and concerns.…”

Appropriate Strategies for Reducing the Negative Impact of Online Reports of Suicide and Public Opinion From Social Media in China

“…People were more sensitive to negative events during critics. A previous study found that several anticontagion policies were associated with search interest levels for the term “suicide” in the online media ( 34 ). This study found that the impact indexes of suicide events were higher during COVID-19 than before COVID-19 the pandemic.…”

Suicide Attempts Assisted By Firefighters According to Traumatic Brain Injury

“…Studies show that the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the countries of the world differently according to the public health and sanitary measures adopted (Burnett et al, 2020 ). The effects of social distancing and quarantine on mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic are noticeably similar to those of traumatic events, resulting in common observable disorders such as major depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety disorders, increased alcohol and drug use, and suicide attempts (Mari & Oquendo, 2020 ).…”