Utility and limitations of Google searches on sensory loss as markers for new COVID-19 cases

AbstractEvidence of smell loss in COVID-19 is growing. Researchers and analysts have suggested to use Google searches on smell loss as indicators of COVID-19 cases. However, such searches may be due to interest elicited by media coverage of the COVID-19-related smell loss, rather than attempts to understand self-symptoms. We analyzed searches related to 4 senses: smell and taste (both recently shown to be impaired in some COVID-19 patients), vision and sight (senses not currently known to be impaired in COVID-19 patients), and an additional general control (“COVID-19 symptoms”). Focusing on two countries with a large number of cases, Italy and the United States, we have compared Google Trends results per region or state to the number of new cases prevalence in that region. The analysis was performed for each of the 8 weeks ranging from March 4th till April 28th.No correlation with vision loss or sight loss searches was identified, while taste and smell loss searches were correlated with new COVID-19 cases during a limited time window, that starts when the number of weekly new cases reached for the first time 21357 cases in Italy (11-17 March) and 47553 in the US (18-24 March).Media effect on the specific symptoms searches was also analyzed, establishing a different impact according to the country.Our results suggest that Google Trends for taste loss and smell loss searches captured a genuine connection between these symptoms and new COVID-19 cases prevalence in the population. However, due to variability in correlation from week to week, and overall decrease in correlation as taste and smell loss are becoming known COVID-19 symptoms, recognized now by CDC and World Health Organization, Google Trends is no longer a reliable marker for monitoring the disease spread. The “surprise rise” followed by decrease, probably attributable to knowledge saturation, should be kept in mind for future digital media analyses of potential new symptoms of COVID-19 or future pandemics.

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The Influence of Media Coverage and Governmental Policies on Google Queries Related to COVID-19 Cutaneous Symptoms: Infodemiology Study

JMIR Public Health and Surveillance ◽

10.2196/25651 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 7 (2) ◽

pp. e25651

Author(s):

Solene Huynh Dagher ◽

Guillaume Lamé ◽

Thomas Hubiche ◽

Khaled Ezzedine ◽

Tu Anh Duong

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

United Kingdom ◽

Media Coverage ◽

The United States ◽

Google Trends ◽

World Health ◽

The United Kingdom ◽

Internet Searches ◽

The Impact ◽

Over Time

Background During COVID-19, studies have reported the appearance of internet searches for disease symptoms before their validation by the World Health Organization. This suggested that monitoring of these searches with tools including Google Trends may help monitor the pandemic itself. In Europe and North America, dermatologists reported an unexpected outbreak of cutaneous acral lesions (eg, chilblain-like lesions) in April 2020. However, external factors such as public communications may also hinder the use of Google Trends as an infodemiology tool. Objective The study aimed to assess the impact of media announcements and lockdown enforcement on internet searches related to cutaneous acral lesions during the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020. Methods Two searches on Google Trends, including daily relative search volumes for (1) “toe” or “chilblains” and (2) “coronavirus,” were performed from January 1 to May 16, 2020, with the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Spain, and Germany as the countries of choice. The ratio of interest over time in “chilblains” and “coronavirus” was plotted. To assess the impact of lockdown enforcement and media coverage on these internet searches, we performed an interrupted time-series analysis for each country. Results The ratio of interest over time in “chilblains” to “coronavirus” showed a constant upward trend. In France, Italy, and the United Kingdom, lockdown enforcement was associated with a significant slope change for “chilblain” searches with a variation coefficient of 1.06 (SE 0.42) (P=0.01), 1.04 (SE 0.28) (P<.01), and 1.21 (SE 0.44) (P=0.01), respectively. After media announcements, these ratios significantly increased in France, Spain, Italy, and the United States with variation coefficients of 18.95 (SE 5.77) (P=.001), 31.31 (SE 6.31) (P<.001), 14.57 (SE 6.33) (P=.02), and 11.24 (SE 4.93) (P=.02), respectively, followed by a significant downward trend in France (–1.82 [SE 0.45]), Spain (–1.10 [SE 0.38]), and Italy (–0.93 [SE 0.33]) (P<.001, P=0.004, and P<.001, respectively). The adjusted R2 values were 0.311, 0.351, 0.325, and 0.305 for France, Spain, Italy, and the United States, respectively, suggesting an average correlation between time and the search volume; however, this correlation was weak for Germany and the United Kingdom. Conclusions To date, the association between chilblain-like lesions and COVID-19 remains controversial; however, our results indicate that Google queries of “chilblain” were highly influenced by media coverage and government policies, indicating that caution should be exercised when using Google Trends as a monitoring tool for emerging diseases.

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Modelling the Paucity of COVID-19 Pandemic Spread Incidence across the India Nation (Preprint)

10.2196/preprints.19740 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Alfonso J. Rodriguez-Morales ◽

Ram Kumar Singh ◽

S.S. Singh ◽

A. K. Pandey ◽

Vinod Kumar ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Data Analysis ◽

Arima Model ◽

Time Estimation ◽

The United States ◽

World Health ◽

Disease Spread ◽

Analysis Model ◽

Indian States ◽

The World ◽

Confirmatory Data Analysis

BACKGROUND The highly contagious Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic affected nearly all nations across the world. It was emerged as most swiftly affected disease across the world and more than 2934 lakhs population suffered in four months of the time period as on date April 26, 2020. Its first epicenter was at Wuhan city of China during the month of December 2019. Currently, the most affected people and new epicenter of Coronavirus is at the United States of America (USA). It is identified as the most severe pandemic disease in human history during the past 100 years. Due to non-availability of specific medication, the World Health Organization (WHO) suggested various measures of precautions and social distance in between the people for the restricting the spread of the COVID-19 disease. Various nation’s administration including the India government called for the regional and local lockdown. OBJECTIVE We predicted the confirmed COVID-19 cases for next May-2020 month, map the magnitude of COVID-19 disease for Indian states and model the paucity of COVID-19 disease with statistical confirmatory data analysis model for declining rate for the cases represented for the Indian proportion of population. METHODS The ARIMA model used to predict for next short-term cases, based moving average of past confirmed cases. The restriction of COVID-19 pandemic disease analyzed with predicted cases for month May 2020 data at 95 percent confidence is more than 2.5 lakh cases. RESULTS The confirmatory data analysis model for the time estimation for the paucity of cases it takes in between six to eighteen months of time frame. The Confirmatory model which considers recovery rate, social, economic and government policy. To complete recovery from the COVID-19 cases it takes on an average more than next ten months. CONCLUSIONS The disease impacts also depend upon administrative and local people support for self-quarantine and other measures. The India nation Gross Domestic Product (GDP) based on more than 17% of its agriculture production, due to longer affect of the disease and extended lockdown period it will be severely affected. However, all the economic activities with full of its intensity takes-up after complete paucity of COVID-19 disease spread. CLINICALTRIAL wqew ere re

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A comparison of prospective space-time scan statistics and spatiotemporal event sequence based clustering for COVID-19 surveillance

PLoS ONE ◽

10.1371/journal.pone.0252990 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 16 (6) ◽

pp. e0252990

Author(s):

Fuyu Xu ◽

Kate Beard

Keyword(s):

Sequence Similarity ◽

The United States ◽

Incidence Rates ◽

Space Time ◽

Scan Statistics ◽

World Health ◽

Disease Spread ◽

Event Sequence ◽

Scan Statistic ◽

Time Scan

The outbreak of the COVID-19 disease was first reported in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. Cases in the United States began appearing in late January. On March 11, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a pandemic. By mid-March COVID-19 cases were spreading across the US with several hotspots appearing by April. Health officials point to the importance of surveillance of COVID-19 to better inform decision makers at various levels and efficiently manage distribution of human and technical resources to areas of need. The prospective space-time scan statistic has been used to help identify emerging COVID-19 disease clusters, but results from this approach can encounter strategic limitations imposed by constraints of the scanning window. This paper presents a different approach to COVID-19 surveillance based on a spatiotemporal event sequence (STES) similarity. In this STES based approach, adapted for this pandemic context we compute the similarity of evolving daily COVID-19 incidence rates by county and then cluster these sequences to identify counties with similarly trending COVID-19 case loads. We analyze four study periods and compare the sequence similarity-based clusters to prospective space-time scan statistic-based clusters. The sequence similarity-based clusters provide an alternate surveillance perspective by identifying locations that may not be spatially proximate but share a similar disease progression pattern. Results of the two approaches taken together can aid in tracking the progression of the pandemic to aid local or regional public health responses and policy actions taken to control or moderate the disease spread.

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Content Analysis of Digital Media Coverage of the Human Papillomavirus Vaccine School-Entry Requirement Policy in Puerto Rico

10.21203/rs.3.rs-67660/v1 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Vivian Colón-López ◽

Vilnery Rivera-Figueroa ◽

Glizette O Arroyo-Morales ◽

Diana T Medina-Laabes ◽

Roxana Soto-Abreu ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Puerto Rico ◽

Human Papillomavirus ◽

Cancer Prevention ◽

Digital Media ◽

Hpv Vaccine ◽

Media Coverage ◽

News Coverage ◽

The United States ◽

School Entry ◽

Theory Approach

Abstract BackgroundIn August 2018, Puerto Rico (PR) became the 4th state or territory in the United States to adopt a human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine school-entry requirement, for students 11-12 years old. Evidence suggests that the content of media coverage may impact people's perception of HPV vaccine and their willingness to vaccinate. This study aimed to analyze the content of digital news coverage related to the implementation of the policy in PR.MethodsA content review was conducted of digital media published from January 2017 through December 2018. The content reviewed was carried out in two steps: 1) creating a matrix to summarize each article’s content about the policy and 2) qualitative analysis using a grounded theory approach. ResultsThe search resulted in 34 articles in 17 online local and international news outlets that reported on the implementation of the policy. Analyses showed that 61% of the news articles did not mention the number of required doses, and 79% discussed the new policy concerning cancer prevention. In 2017, news coverage focused mostly on describing the policy, while 2018 coverage focused on controversies surrounding the implementation. Negative emergent codes included: 1) infringement to patient and parental autonomy; 2) Hesitancy from the political sector 3) Hesitancy from groups and coalitions. Positive content included: 1) knowledge and acceptance of HPV vaccine for cancer prevention; 2) importance of education and protective sexual behaviors; and 3) new vaccination law proposal. Neutral emergent codes included: 1) Description of the policy; 2) Information about HPV related cancers; and 3) General information about HPV vaccine.ConclusionsMost of the media coverage in PR was neutral and included limited information related to the vaccine, HPV, and HPV-related cancers. Neutral and negative themes could influence public concerns regarding the new policy, as well as HPV vaccination rates in PR.

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Assessment of Health Information About COVID-19 Prevention on the Internet: Infodemiological Study

JMIR Public Health and Surveillance ◽

10.2196/18717 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 6 (2) ◽

pp. e18717 ◽

Cited By ~ 52

Author(s):

Ignacio Hernández-García ◽

Teresa Giménez-Júlvez

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

United States ◽

Digital Media ◽

Health Information ◽

The United States ◽

World Health ◽

The Internet ◽

Health Organizations ◽

Public Health Organizations ◽

Google Search

Background The internet is a large source of health information and has the capacity to influence its users. However, the information found on the internet often lacks scientific rigor, as anyone may upload content. This factor is a cause of great concern to scientific societies, governments, and users. Objective The objective of our study was to investigate the information about the prevention of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on the internet. Methods On February 29, 2020, we performed a Google search with the terms “Prevention coronavirus,” “Prevention COVID-19,” “Prevención coronavirus,” and “Prevención COVID-19”. A univariate analysis was performed to study the association between the type of authorship, country of publication, and recommendations to avoid COVID-19 according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Results In total, 80 weblinks were reviewed. Most of them were produced in the United States and Spain (n=58, 73%) by digital media sources and official public health organizations (n=60, 75%). The most mentioned WHO preventive measure was “wash your hands frequently” (n=65, 81%). A less frequent recommendation was to “stay home if you feel unwell” (n=26, 33%). The analysis by type of author (official public health organizations versus digital media) revealed significant differences regarding the recommendation to wear a mask when you are healthy only if caring for a person with suspected COVID-19 (odds ratio [OR] 4.39). According to the country of publication (Spain versus the United States), significant differences were detected regarding some recommendations such as “wash your hands frequently” (OR 9.82), “cover your mouth and nose with your bent elbow or tissue when you cough or sneeze” (OR 4.59), or “stay home if you feel unwell” (OR 0.31). Conclusions It is necessary to urge and promote the use of the websites of official public health organizations when seeking information on COVID-19 preventive measures on the internet. In this way, users will be able to obtain high-quality information more frequently, and such websites may improve their accessibility and positioning, given that search engines justify the positioning of links obtained in a search based on the frequency of access to them.

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When “Corona” Goes Viral – Online Search Interests in Google for Coronavirus versus Its Incidence in Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States: An Infodemiological Analysis (Preprint)

10.2196/preprints.18993 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Alireza Ahmadvand ◽

Ayda S. Forough ◽

Lisa Nissen

Keyword(s):

The United States ◽

Google Trends ◽

World Health ◽

Health Crisis ◽

The Public ◽

Awareness Campaigns ◽

Search Patterns ◽

The Usa ◽

Health Organization ◽

The Uk

BACKGROUND The public health crisis, due to the new Coronavirus found in December 2019, has received unprecedented attention from the public and the media. The infodemiological analysis of queries from search engines to assess the status of search interests and the actual burden of the new virus could be an informative approach. OBJECTIVE The aim of the study was to assess search query data from Google Trends, to visualize the interest in search over time for the new “Coronavirus” in Google, across four English-speaking countries, namely, Australia, Canada, the UK, and the USA, and compare the search interest with the actual burden of Coronavirus in the corresponding countries. METHODS We used Google Trends service to assess people’s interest in searching about “Coronavirus” classified as “Virus,” from January 1, 2020 to March 13, 2020 in Australia, Canada, the UK, and the USA. Then, we evaluated top regions and their relative search volumes (SVs) and country-specific “Top” and “Rising” searches. We also evaluated the trends in the incidence of detected Coronavirus infections to find possible differences between the actual burden of the disease and search patterns by the public. RESULTS From January 1, 2020 to March 13, 2020, Australia was the top country searching for Coronavirus in Google, followed by Canada, the UK, and the USA. There was a noticeable bimodal pattern in searching for Coronavirus, mostly in late January 2020, and then from early March 2020. Search interest in all four countries declined in the month of February 2020. Top regions in each of the four countries with the highest search interest where the ones which reported either a confirmed case of Coronavirus infection or a death due to it. None of the declarations by the World Health Organization of the nature of this pandemic appeared to have caused major changes in the search patterns in Google. CONCLUSIONS Search for ‘Coronavirus’ increased exponentially, in all four countries, mostly in Australia. The month of February 2020 could be considered a ‘lost opportunity’ in terms of acting on the momentum of searching by people on Google about the Coronavirus. The increased interest in searching for keywords related to Coronavirus and its symptoms shows the possible focus areas of awareness campaigns in increasing societal demand for health information on the Web, to be met in community-wide communication or awareness interventions, should another pandemic occur in the future.

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Content analysis of digital media coverage of the human papillomavirus vaccine school-entry requirement policy in Puerto Rico

BMC Public Health ◽

10.1186/s12889-021-11311-9 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 21 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Vivian Colón-López ◽

Vilnery Rivera-Figueroa ◽

Glizette O. Arroyo-Morales ◽

Diana T. Medina-Laabes ◽

Roxana Soto-Abreu ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Puerto Rico ◽

Human Papillomavirus ◽

Cancer Prevention ◽

Digital Media ◽

Hpv Vaccine ◽

Media Coverage ◽

News Coverage ◽

The United States ◽

School Entry ◽

Theory Approach

Abstract Background In August 2018, Puerto Rico (PR) became the 4th state or territory in the United States to adopt a human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine school-entry requirement, for students 11–12 years old. Evidence suggests that the content of media coverage may impact people’s perception of HPV vaccine and their willingness to vaccinate. This study aimed to analyze the content of digital news coverage related to the implementation of the policy in PR. Methods A content review was conducted of digital media published from January 2017 through December 2018. The content reviewed was carried out in two steps: 1) creating a matrix to summarize each article’s content about the policy and 2) qualitative analysis using a grounded theory approach. Results The search resulted in 34 articles obtained from 17 online local and international news outlets that reported the policy's implementation. Analyses showed that 61% of the news articles did not mention the number of required doses, and 79% discussed the new policy concerning cancer prevention. In 2017, news coverage focused mostly on describing the policy, while 2018 coverage focused on controversies surrounding the implementation. Neutral emergent codes included: 1) Description of the policy; 2) Information about HPV related cancers; and 3) General information about HPV vaccine. Negative emergent codes included: 1) infringement to patient and parental autonomy; 2) Hesitancy from the political sector, and 3) Hesitancy from groups and coalitions. Positive content included: 1) knowledge and acceptance of HPV vaccine for cancer prevention; 2) importance of education and protective sexual behaviors; and 3) new vaccination law proposal. Conclusions Most of the media coverage in PR was neutral and included limited information related to the vaccine, HPV, and HPV-related cancers. Neutral and negative themes could influence public concerns regarding the new policy, as well as HPV vaccination rates in PR.

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Vision and Hearing Loss in Older Adults: “Double Trouble”

Care Management Journals ◽

10.1891/cmaj.5.1.35.61260 ◽

2004 ◽

Vol 5 (1) ◽

pp. 35-40 ◽

Cited By ~ 20

Author(s):

Paige Berry ◽

John Mascia ◽

Bernard A. Steinman

Keyword(s):

Hearing Loss ◽

Vision Loss ◽

The Elderly ◽

The United States ◽

Sensory Loss ◽

Older Individuals ◽

The People ◽

Common Causes ◽

Functional Implications ◽

Dual Sensory Loss

Recent studies indicate that by age seventy, 21% of the people living in the United States have both vision and hearing loss. Dual sensory loss in the elderly has a significant effect on an individual’s ability to socialize, communicate with others, and live independently. This article addresses the issues faced by older individuals who are hard of hearing and blind or visually impaired. Common causes and behavioral signs of hearing and vision loss are discussed. An emphasis is placed on the functional implications of the dual sensory impairment and possible accommodations and communication strategies are outlined.

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Google Searches for Taste and Smell Loss Anticipate Covid-19 Epidemiology

10.1101/2020.11.09.20228510 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Giuseppe Lippi ◽

Brandon M. Henry ◽

Camilla Mattiuzzi ◽

Fabian Sanchis-Gomar

Keyword(s):

Google Trends ◽

Disease Epidemiology ◽

Electronic Search ◽

Perfect Correlation ◽

The Us ◽

Specific Symptoms ◽

Taste And Smell ◽

Smell Loss ◽

Disease Specific ◽

Over Time

AbstractBackgroundAs evidence emerged that loss of taste and/or loss of smell is frequently triggered by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection, we investigated whether Google searches volume for these two disease-specific symptoms could be associated with disease epidemiology in United States (US).Materials and MethodsWe performed an electronic search in Google Trends using the keywords “taste loss” and “smell loss” within the US. The Google searches volume was correlated with the number of new weekly cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in the country.ResultsThe weekly Google searches for taste and smell loss exhibited a trend similar to that of new weekly SARS-CoV-2 infections in the US. A nearly perfect correlation was found between Google Trends scores of taste and smell loss (r=0.98; 95% CI, 0.97-0.99; p<0.001). Although a significant association was found between Google searches for the two symptoms and the concomitant number of new weekly SARS-CoV-2 infections reported during the same week, the correlation improved over time. The highest correlation was found comparing Google Trends scores for taste or smell loss and the number of new weekly SARS-CoV-2 infections two weeks later. The correlation coefficient of summing Google Trends scores for the two symptoms and the number of new weekly SARS-CoV-2 infections two weeks later was 0.82 (95% CI, 0.68-0.90; p<0.001), and was associated 0.89 diagnostic accuracy.ConclusionsThese findings suggest that Google searches numbers for olfactory and gustatory dysfunctions may help predicting the epidemiological trajectory of COVID-19 early before official reporting.

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Assessment of Health Information About COVID-19 Prevention on the Internet: Infodemiological Study (Preprint)

10.2196/preprints.18717 ◽

2020 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Ignacio Hernández-García ◽

Teresa Giménez-Júlvez

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

United States ◽

Digital Media ◽

Health Information ◽

The United States ◽

World Health ◽

The Internet ◽

Health Organizations ◽

Public Health Organizations ◽

Google Search

BACKGROUND The internet is a large source of health information and has the capacity to influence its users. However, the information found on the internet often lacks scientific rigor, as anyone may upload content. This factor is a cause of great concern to scientific societies, governments, and users. OBJECTIVE The objective of our study was to investigate the information about the prevention of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on the internet. METHODS On February 29, 2020, we performed a Google search with the terms “Prevention coronavirus,” “Prevention COVID-19,” “Prevención coronavirus,” and “Prevención COVID-19”. A univariate analysis was performed to study the association between the type of authorship, country of publication, and recommendations to avoid COVID-19 according to the World Health Organization (WHO). RESULTS In total, 80 weblinks were reviewed. Most of them were produced in the United States and Spain (n=58, 73%) by digital media sources and official public health organizations (n=60, 75%). The most mentioned WHO preventive measure was “wash your hands frequently” (n=65, 81%). A less frequent recommendation was to “stay home if you feel unwell” (n=26, 33%). The analysis by type of author (official public health organizations versus digital media) revealed significant differences regarding the recommendation to wear a mask when you are healthy only if caring for a person with suspected COVID-19 (odds ratio [OR] 4.39). According to the country of publication (Spain versus the United States), significant differences were detected regarding some recommendations such as “wash your hands frequently” (OR 9.82), “cover your mouth and nose with your bent elbow or tissue when you cough or sneeze” (OR 4.59), or “stay home if you feel unwell” (OR 0.31). CONCLUSIONS It is necessary to urge and promote the use of the websites of official public health organizations when seeking information on COVID-19 preventive measures on the internet. In this way, users will be able to obtain high-quality information more frequently, and such websites may improve their accessibility and positioning, given that search engines justify the positioning of links obtained in a search based on the frequency of access to them.

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