scholarly journals Coronavirus-related online web search desire amidst the rising novel coronavirus incidence in Ethiopia: Google Trends-based infodemiology

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Behailu Terefe ◽  
Alessandro Rovetta ◽  
Asha K Rajan ◽  
Mengist Awoke
Keyword(s):  
Public Interest ◽  
Web Search ◽  
Google Trends ◽  
The Public ◽  
Corona Virus ◽  
Health Related ◽  
Novel Coronavirus ◽  
Google Search ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Online Web

Abstract Background: During outbreaks, like novel coronavirus (COVID 19) disease pandemic, social communication and behaviors are very important. Under such circumstances, individual activities in social media and other online platforms will increase tremendously resulting in the circulation of information in the community. These pieces of information can be infodemic monikers misleading the community. Thus exploring the trends of public interest in searching COVID 19 related issues and checking information circulating in the public is highly crucial. Objective: This study aimed to explore users' concerns towards coronavirus related online web search and to investigate the extent of infodemic monikers (misinformation) adopted for identifying the virus in the early stage of COVID 19 spread in Ethiopia. Methods: Google Trends was employed in exploring the tendency towards coronavirus related web search activities in Ethiopia from March 13 to May 8, 2020. Keywords of the different names of COVID 19 and health related issues were used to investigate the trends of public interest in searching from Google over time. Relative search volume (RSV), Average peak comparison (APC), and associated graphs were used to compare the trends of online search interests. Pearson correlation coefficient was calculated to check for the presence of correlation. Result: During the study period, the top names users adopted to identify the virus in Ethiopia were corona, virus, coronavirus, corona virus, China coronavirus, and COVID 19. In almost all search activities, the users employed infodemic monikers to identify the virus (overall relative search percentage of 99%). Updates related issues (APC=60, 95% CI, 55, 66) were the most commonly trending health related searches on Google followed by mortality (APC=27, 95% CI, 24, 30) and symptoms (APC=55, 95% CI, 50, 60) related issues. The regional comparison showed the highest cumulative peak for the Oromia region (cumulative total RSVs, 536) followed by the Tigray region (cumulative total RSVs, 512) on querying health related information from Google. No significant correlation was detected between COVID 19 cases per region/city and the maximum peaks of health related searches. Conclusion: This study revealed an initial increase in the public interest of COVID 19 related Google search, but this interest was declined over time. Tremendous circulation of infodemic monikers for the identification of the virus was also noticed in the country. The authors recommend for the government and other stakeholders to work immensely to keep the people alert on coronavirus-related issues and to promote the official names of the virus, like COVID 19, SARS CoV 2 in the public to decrease the circulation of misleading and misinformation amid the outbreak. Keywords: Coronavirus, infodemiology, infodemic monikers; Google Trends, Ethiopia

scholarly journals An empirical analysis of what people learned about COVID-19 through a web search and the impacts on misinformation and attitude towards public health safety guidelines.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ikpe Justice Akpan ◽  
Obianuju Genevieve Aguolu ◽  
Asuama A. Akpan
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Web Search ◽  
Online News ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Health Safety ◽  
The Public ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Novel Coronavirus ◽  
Google Search ◽  
Safety Guidelines

Several people flocked to the Internet to learn about the SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 after the outbreak in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. As the novel coronavirus spread rapidly worldwide and was declared a global pandemic, the public rushed to Internet platforms to learn about the outbreak through Google search, online news outlets, and social media platforms. This paper evaluates the public's web search to learn about the pandemic and the possible impacts on attitude to the public health guidelines. The results highlight four outcomes: First, a significant global population learned about the ongoing pandemic through a web search. Second, there is a direct correlation between learning SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19, and SARS-CoV and searching for information on public health measures (wearing a facial mask and social distancing). Third, learning conspiracy theories or misinformation correspond with a lack of interest in gaining knowledge about public health safety guidelines. Also, the initial high interest in learning about Influenza declined as people gained information about SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19. The results highlight the critical need to promptly sensitize the public about global health concerns using both the Internet platforms and traditional sources, adopt effective health communication strategies, and build trust.

scholarly journals The Social Determinants of Conspiratorial Ideation

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 237802311668979 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph DiGrazia
Keyword(s):  
Social Determinants ◽  
Public Interest ◽  
Political Process ◽  
Social Conditions ◽  
The Political ◽  
Conspiracy Theories ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Social ◽  
Search Data ◽  
Google Search

Scholars have recently become increasingly interested in understanding the prevalence and persistence of conspiratorial beliefs among the public as recent research has shown such beliefs to be both widespread and to have deleterious effects on the political process. This article seeks to develop a sociological understanding of the structural conditions that are associated with conspiratorial belief. Using aggregate Google search data to measure public interest in two popular political conspiracy theories, the findings indicate that social conditions associated with threat and insecurity, including unemployment, changes in partisan control of government, and demographic changes, are associated with increased conspiratorial ideation.

scholarly journals Increase in Google Trends Regarding Telogen Effluvium Due To COVID-19

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 137-139
Author(s):  
Jasmine Garg ◽  
Abigail Cline ◽  
Frederick Pereira
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Hair Loss ◽  
Public Interest ◽  
The United States ◽  
Google Trends ◽  
Therapeutic Interventions ◽  
The Public ◽  
Search Terms ◽  
The Future ◽  
Before And After

Objective: The purpose of this study was to assess the public interest in the United States of telogen effluvium before and after the COVID-19 pandemic in order to investigate the best therapeutic interventions for dermatologists in the future. Methods: We performed Google TrendsTM search for “COVID hair loss”, “telogen effluvium” and “hair loss” between 5/1/20 and 8/16/20. Conclusion: All three terms have increased in popularity for search terms since mid-March and were the most prevalent in the states that experienced the earliest increase in number of coronavirus cases.

scholarly journals Public interest in immunity: justification for intervention in the early stages of COVID-19 (Preprint)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yunna Kwan ◽  
Jinhee Lee ◽  
Jun Young Lee ◽  
Keum Hwa Lee ◽  
Sung Hwi Hong ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Infectious Disease ◽  
Public Interest ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Search Term ◽  
Strong Positive Correlation ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Google Search

UNSTRUCTURED Our study aimed to identify the interest and correlation between the proliferation of coronavirus disease 2019(COVID-19), interest in immunity and products that have been discussed to confer an enhancement of immunity, while suggesting the measures of intervention to be undertaken from a health and medical point of view. To assess the level of public interest in infectious disease during the initial days of the outbreak of COVID-19, we extracted Google search data from the past year based on the date of 15th of March 2020, which is approximately two months after the COVID-19 outbreak. In order to determine whether the public became interested in the immune system, we selected ‘coronavirus’, ‘immune’, ‘vitamin’ as our final search term. The increase in cumulative confirmed cases of coronavirus after January 20 had a strong positive correlation with search volumes for the terms ‘coronavirus’ (R = 0.786, P < .0001), ‘immune’ (R = 0.745, P < .0001) and ‘vitamin’ (R = 0.778, P < .0001), and the variables were all mutually statistically significant. Moreover, these correlations were confirmed on a country-basis when we restricted analyses to the US, the UK, Italy, and Korea. Our findings revealed that increases in search volumes for ‘coronavirus’ and ‘immune’ preceded the actual occurrences of confirmed cases. Our study implicates that during the initial phase of the COVID-19 crisis, the public’s desire and actions to strengthen their own immune systems were enhanced. Further, in the early stage of a pandemic there is a high potential of social media to inform the public about potentially helpful measures to prevent the spread of an infectious disease and provide relevant information about immunity and thereby increase the knowledge.

scholarly journals Engagement Analysis of Canadian Public Health and News Media Facebook Posts and Sentiment Analysis of Corresponding Comments during COVID-19

Psych ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 60-70
Author(s):  
Melissa MacKay ◽  
Taylor Colangeli ◽  
Sydney Gosselin ◽  
Sophie Neumann ◽  
Andrew Papadopoulos
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
News Media ◽  
Crisis Communication ◽  
Protective Measures ◽  
Essential Information ◽  
The Public ◽  
Key Stakeholders ◽  
Negative Comments ◽  
Health Related ◽  
Over Time

During the COVID-19 pandemic, key stakeholders have used social media to rapidly disseminate essential information to the public to help them make informed health-related decisions. Our research examined how the public responded to official actors’ Facebook posts during COVID-19 and examined the comment sentiment and post engagement rates. CBC News and CTV News received a greater proportion of negative comments and a lower average post engagement rate compared with Healthy Canadians. Additionally, the proportion of negative and positive comments varied over time for all sources; however, over 30% of the comments for all three actors were consistently negative. Key stakeholders should monitor the public’s response to their social media posts and adapt their messages to increase the effectiveness of their crisis communication efforts to encourage the adoption of protective measures.

scholarly journals COVID-19-Related Web Search Behaviors and Infodemic Attitudes in Italy: Infodemiological Study (Preprint)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alessandro Rovetta ◽  
Akshaya Srikanth Bhagavathula
Keyword(s):  
Web Search ◽  
Population Level ◽  
Google Trends ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Search Activity ◽  
Campania Region ◽  
Search Volume ◽  
Government Websites ◽  
Novel Coronavirus

BACKGROUND Since the beginning of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, fake news and misleading information have circulated worldwide, which can profoundly affect public health communication. OBJECTIVE We investigated online search behavior related to the COVID-19 outbreak and the attitudes of “infodemic monikers” (ie, erroneous information that gives rise to interpretative mistakes, fake news, episodes of racism, etc) circulating in Italy. METHODS By using Google Trends to explore the internet search activity related to COVID-19 from January to March 2020, article titles from the most read newspapers and government websites were mined to investigate the attitudes of infodemic monikers circulating across various regions and cities in Italy. Search volume values and average peak comparison (APC) values were used to analyze the results. RESULTS Keywords such as “novel coronavirus,” “China coronavirus,” “COVID-19,” “2019-nCOV,” and “SARS-COV-2” were the top infodemic and scientific COVID-19 terms trending in Italy. The top five searches related to health were “face masks,” “amuchina” (disinfectant), “symptoms of the novel coronavirus,” “health bulletin,” and “vaccines for coronavirus.” The regions of Umbria and Basilicata recorded a high number of infodemic monikers (APC weighted total &gt;140). Misinformation was widely circulated in the Campania region, and racism-related information was widespread in Umbria and Basilicata. These monikers were frequently searched (APC weighted total &gt;100) in more than 10 major cities in Italy, including Rome. CONCLUSIONS We identified a growing regional and population-level interest in COVID-19 in Italy. The majority of searches were related to amuchina, face masks, health bulletins, and COVID-19 symptoms. Since a large number of infodemic monikers were observed across Italy, we recommend that health agencies use Google Trends to predict human behavior as well as to manage misinformation circulation in Italy.

Assessing neurosurgical trends in literature and online: a Google Trends, Google Books and PubMed study (Preprint)

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tomasz Szmuda ◽  
Shan Ali ◽  
Paweł Słoniewski
Keyword(s):  
Google Trends ◽  
Historical Trends ◽  
Scientific Publications ◽  
The Public ◽  
Search Terms ◽  
Printed Books ◽  
Google Books ◽  
Major Increase ◽  
Medicine Today ◽  
Over Time

BACKGROUND Google Books Ngram Viewer (Ngram) is an open online database of 5 million printed books where the frequency of words occurring in books can be analyzed over time. Google Trends is a tool that allows one to gauge popularity of search terms and topics over time. These tools have not yet been used together to assess the historical and current the trends in neurosurgery. OBJECTIVE To assess the neurosurgical trends in literature and online in the past and currently. METHODS Ngram, Google Trends and PubMed data were used to analyze the neurosurgical trends from 2004–2008. Next, Google Trends and PubMed data was obtained from 2018 to compare the data. The following keywords were searched on all three platforms: brain tumor, sciatica, neurosurgery, hydrocephalus and concussion. RESULTS Each platform had a characteristic interest in each topic. Online Google searches were most concerned with sciatica (62/100 worldwide), the scientific community with neurosurgery (7661 average yearly publications) and book authors wrote most about concussions (0.00013% worldwide Google One Million books). Sciatica held both the least scientific publications (129 average yearly publications) and one of the least mentions in printed books (0.000030% worldwide Google One Million books). The online and PubMed interest levels stayed the same from 2004 to 2018. However, concussion—which held one of the lowest online search interests from 2004 to 2008—had a major increase in 2018 online searches. CONCLUSIONS Ngram, Google Trends and PubMed data together provide valuable insights into the health interests among physicians and the public. It is crucial for neurosurgeons to be aware of historical trends as they offer vital insight on the driving factors in medicine today. Physicians can use this understanding to better align public and scientific concerns for the future, provide better patient education and raise awareness on issues that might be overlooked by the public.

Twitter Users Display Desensitization to Bad Health News: An Observational Study (Preprint)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hannah R Stevens ◽  
Yoo Jung Oh ◽  
Laramie R Taylor
Keyword(s):  
The United States ◽  
Emotional Reactions ◽  
Coping Behaviors ◽  
Health News ◽  
The Public ◽  
Death Toll ◽  
The Us ◽  
Twitter Users ◽  
Novel Coronavirus ◽  
Over Time

BACKGROUND Among the countries affected by the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), the US shows the highest number of confirmed cases (18.7 million, 23.5% of confirmed cases worldwide) and deaths (0.3 million, 18.9% of death worldwide) as of December 26, 2020. Early on in the pandemic, widespread social, financial, and mental insecurities led to extreme and irrational coping behaviors, such as panic buying. Yet, despite the consistent spread of COVID-19 transmission, the public have begun to violate public safety measures. From such observations, two key considerations arise. First, fear-eliciting health messages have a significant effect on eliciting motivation to take action in order to control the threat. However, repeated exposure to these messages over long periods results in desensitization to those stimuli. OBJECTIVE In this work, we examine the effect of fear-inducing news articles on people’s expression of anxiety on Twitter. Additionally, we investigate desensitization to the fear-inducing health news over time, despite the steadily rising COVID-19 death toll. METHODS This study examined the anxiety levels in news articles (n=1,465) and corresponding tweets containing “COVID,” “COVID-19,” “pandemic,” and “coronavirus” over 11 months, then correlated that information with the death toll of COVID-19 in the United States. RESULTS Overall, tweets that shared links to anxious articles were more likely to be anxious. (OR 2.62, 95% CI 1.58-4.43, p < .001). These odds decreased (OR 0.41, 95% CI 0.2-0.83, p = .01) when the death toll reached the 3rd quartile and 4th quartile (OR 0.42, 95% CI 0.21-0.85, p = .01). Yet tweet anxiety rose rapidly with articles when the death toll was low and then decreased in the 3rd quartile of deaths (OR .61, 95% CI 0.37-1.01, p=.058). As predicted, in addition to the increasing death toll being matched by a lower level of article anxiety, the extent to which article anxiety elicited tweet anxiety decreased when the death count reached the 2nd quartile. CONCLUSIONS Tweets increased sharply in response to article anxiety early on in the COVID-19 pandemic, but as the casualty count climbed, news articles seemingly lost their ability to elicit anxiety among readers. This work investigated how individuals' emotional reactions to news of the COVID-19 pandemic manifest as the death toll increases. Findings suggest individuals became desensitized to the increased COVID-19 threat and their emotional responses were blunted over time.

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