Effectiveness of colon cancer awareness month compared to pancreatic cancer awareness month at increasing internet search activity.

2018 ◽  
Vol 36 (4_suppl) ◽  
pp. 240-240
Author(s):  
Sajan Jiv Singh Nagpal ◽  
Dhruvika Mukhija ◽  
Ayush Sharma ◽  
Sahil Khanna
Keyword(s):  
Pancreatic Cancer ◽  
Colon Cancer ◽  
Internet Search ◽  
Search Activity ◽  
Cancer Awareness ◽  
Screening Guidelines ◽  
Awareness Campaigns ◽  
Search Volume ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Google Search

240 Background: Colorectal and Pancreatic cancers have high mortality with about 50,000 patients dying from each annually. Cancer awareness months (CAMs) have been earmarked by cancer societies to change public attitudes towards prevention, screening and treatment of various cancers. Awareness campaigns lead by these societies have benefited significantly from readily available Internet access and growing social media. Internet search activity has been used as a surrogate tool to gauge public interest and awareness. We aimed to assess if cancer awareness months impact internet search activity for these cancers. Methods: Using Google Trends, a public web facility of Google Inc. based on Google Search, we compared the relative frequency of search of terms ‘Colon Cancer’ and ‘Pancreatic Cancer’ between 1st January 2004 and 31st December 2016 (n=156 months). The program assigns a reference value of 100 for the point of maximum popularity from among the search terms, and provides relative monthly scores for all terms, which we termed relative interest scores (RIS). Within each cancer, the median RIS was then compared for their respective awareness months (n=13; March for CRC and November for PC) to the to the remaining months (n=143). Results: The median (IQR) RIS for CRC was significantly higher for CRC during its CAM:54 (51-63) as compared to other months:47 (44-50); p=0.0001. However, there was no significant difference in the median RIS for PC during its CAM: 33 (27.5-35.5) as compared to other months: 31 (27-33); p=0.43. The point of maximum popularity during the study period (i.e. RIS 100), and other peaks in search volume for PC corresponded to significant news events associated with PC, and PC search volumes surpassed CRC in those months. Conclusions: Ongoing campaigns for CRC awareness appear to be effective in increasing internet search activity during its respective CAM. While differences could be due to established CRC screening guidelines, other reasons behind the success of CRC awareness campaigns should be adopted by PC as awareness campaigns for the two cancers are otherwise similar.

Gauging public awareness and interest related to pancreatic cancer: An analysis of Google search volumes.

2018 ◽  
Vol 36 (4_suppl) ◽  
pp. 250-250
Author(s):  
Dhruvika Mukhija ◽  
Alok A. Khorana ◽  
Davendra Sohal
Keyword(s):  
Pancreatic Cancer ◽  
Colon Cancer ◽  
Public Awareness ◽  
P Value ◽  
Internet Search ◽  
Awareness Campaigns ◽  
Search Terms ◽  
Search Volume ◽  
News Events ◽  
Google Search

250 Background: Over the last 2 decades, the internet has become a major source of medical information. Infoveillance, i.e., public health surveillance using online content analysis has become a powerful tool and internet search activity has been used as a surrogate to gauge public awareness and interest for particular diseases. We aimed to evaluate the search volume for pancreatic cancer (PC), using colon cancer (CC), as a comparator, using data from a popular search engine. Methods: Using Google Trends, a public web facility of Google Inc., based on Google Search, we compared the relative frequency of search terms ‘pancreatic cancer’ and ‘colon cancer’ between 1st January 2004 and 31st August 2017 (n = 164 months). The program assigns a reference value of 100 for the point of maximum popularity from among all the search terms during the search period and provides comparative monthly scores, which we termed relative interest scores (RIS). The RIS for each cancer was then adjusted for incidence (i.e., 53,070 for PC and 95,270 for CC, based on 2016 data), calculated per 10,000 patients and termed ‘i-RIS’. A p-value of < 0.05 was considered significant. Results: For the entire duration, the maximum popularity (RIS = 100) corresponded to a point in March 2008 for PC, likely related to the diagnosis of a famous celebrity during that month. Similar but smaller surges in RIS were observed for other significant news events related to PC during other months (January 2009, October 2009 and October 2011). Overall, the mean (±S.D) RIS for PC and CC were 32.52±8.98 and 50.18±6.44, respectively (p < 0.001). However, the i-RIS was somewhat higher for PC (6.12±1.69) as compared with CC (5.26±0.67) (p < 0.001). Conclusions: Internet search data can provide estimates of public awareness and interest related to cancer. For PC, incidence-adjusted search volumes show spikes in search volumes related to major news events, providing internal validation of these results. Generating news items and promotion by celebrities may play a significant role in the success of cancer awareness campaigns.

scholarly journals MP44-05 SUCCESS OF MEN'S CANCER AWARENESS CAMPAIGNS ACCORDING TO INTERNET SEARCH VOLUME: A GOOGLE TRENDS ANALYSIS

2019 ◽  
Vol 201 (Supplement 4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mehul Patel* ◽  
Joshua Halpern ◽  
Anuj Desai ◽  
Jeremy Lai ◽  
Matthew Hudnall ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Google Trends ◽  
Internet Search ◽  
Cancer Awareness ◽  
Awareness Campaigns ◽  
Search Volume ◽  
Trends Analysis

scholarly journals Internet search query data improve forecasts of daily emergency department volume

2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (12) ◽  
pp. 1574-1583 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sam Tideman ◽  
Mauricio Santillana ◽  
Jonathan Bickel ◽  
Ben Reis
Keyword(s):  
Predictive Power ◽  
Linear Models ◽  
Data Sources ◽  
Weather Data ◽  
Volume Data ◽  
Internet Search ◽  
Search Activity ◽  
Search Volume ◽  
Day Of The Week ◽  
Google Search

Abstract Objective Emergency departments (EDs) are increasingly overcrowded. Forecasting patient visit volume is challenging. Reliable and accurate forecasting strategies may help improve resource allocation and mitigate the effects of overcrowding. Patterns related to weather, day of the week, season, and holidays have been previously used to forecast ED visits. Internet search activity has proven useful for predicting disease trends and offers a new opportunity to improve ED visit forecasting. This study tests whether Google search data and relevant statistical methods can improve the accuracy of ED volume forecasting compared with traditional data sources. Materials and Methods Seven years of historical daily ED arrivals were collected from Boston Children’s Hospital. We used data from the public school calendar, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and Google Trends. Multiple linear models using LASSO (least absolute shrinkage and selection operator) for variable selection were created. The models were trained on 5 years of data and out-of-sample accuracy was judged using multiple error metrics on the final 2 years. Results All data sources added complementary predictive power. Our baseline day-of-the-week model recorded average percent errors of 10.99%. Autoregressive terms, calendar and weather data reduced errors to 7.71%. Search volume data reduced errors to 7.58% theoretically preventing 4 improperly staffed days. Discussion The predictive power provided by the search volume data may stem from the ability to capture population-level interaction with events, such as winter storms and infectious diseases, that traditional data sources alone miss. Conclusions This study demonstrates that search volume data can meaningfully improve forecasting of ED visit volume and could help improve quality and reduce cost.

EPR19-067: Effectiveness of Breast Cancer Awareness Campaign on Internet Search Activity Compared to Other Gynecological Malignancies

2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (3.5) ◽  
pp. EPR19-067
Author(s):  
Akriti Gupta Jain ◽  
Abdul Kareem Khan ◽  
Ranjeet Kumar ◽  
Mohammed Wazir ◽  
Syed Askari Hasan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Breast Cancer ◽  
Cervical Cancer ◽  
Reference Value ◽  
Google Trends ◽  
Internet Search ◽  
Search Activity ◽  
Cancer Awareness ◽  
Awareness Campaigns ◽  
Breast Cancer Awareness ◽  
The Masses

Background: Breast Cancer (BC) is common, with 1 in 8 U.S. women (12.4%) developing invasive breast cancer in their lifetime. BC is associated with the most awareness campaigns with pink ribbon as its symbol. October was earmarked as the breast cancer awareness month (CAM) in 1985. Cervical (CC) and ovarian cancers (OC) are associated with a high mortality as well and have awareness months dedicated to them. The aim of these awareness drives is to change public attitude and help in early detection and ultimately prevention of various cancers. Internet search activity can be used as a method to gauge interest and awareness in the masses. We aimed to assess the popularity of BC compared to other gynecological cancers, including OC and CC. Methods: We compared the relative frequency of search terms “Breast Cancer,” “Ovarian Cancer,” and “Cervical Cancer” between January 1, 2004 and December 31, 2017 (n=168 months) using Google Trends, a public web facility of Google Inc. The software designates a reference value of 100 for the point of highest popularity and it provides relative monthly popularity scores for all the terms, which we termed as comparative interest scores (CIS). Within each cancer, average CIS was then compared for their respective awareness months (n=14 months; October for BC, September for OC, and January for CC) to the remaining months (n=154 months). Results: The mean CIS for BC was significantly higher during its CAM, 70.5 as compared to other months 35.9; p<0.001. However, for CC mean CIS during January (7.4) was not different compared to the other months (7.4); P=1.00. And for OC, CIS was significantly higher during its CAM (9.2) compared to other months (7.7); P=.0002. The peak of highest popularity for breast cancer was observed during October 2004 and all peaks corresponded to the CAM; other smaller peaks were seen during significant news events associated with BC, all of which surpassed OC and CC in those months. Overall BC CIS were significantly higher compared to CC (P<.001) and OC (P<.001). Conclusions: We conclude that BC awareness campaigns have succeeded in increasing internet search activity during its CAM but ovarian and cervical cancer campaigns especially when compared to breast cancer have not been as successful. There is still a need to increase awareness among masses. Google trends data also tells us which states in US have more internet search activity compared to others which can be used to target the relatively unaware public.

The effect of cancer awareness month campaigns on internet search volume and incidence of cancer diagnoses.

2013 ◽  
Vol 31 (15_suppl) ◽  
pp. e17512-e17512 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wade T. Swenson ◽  
John M. Lindblom ◽  
John Reber
Keyword(s):  
Breast Cancer ◽  
Cervical Cancer ◽  
Colon Cancer ◽  
Public Awareness ◽  
The United States ◽  
Volume Index ◽  
Internet Search ◽  
Cancer Awareness ◽  
Awareness Campaign ◽  
Search Volume

e17512 Background: Cancer awareness month campaigns are a health promotion tool used to increase public awareness about a specific cancer, its prevention, and treatment. Cancer awareness month campaigns could be most impactful in promoting awareness of cancers for which established screening guidelines exist. Currently, the United States Preventive Task Force endorses screening the general population for colon, cervical and breast cancers. We aimed to assess the effectiveness of campaigns by identifying internet search volume and monthly cancer diagnoses. Methods: GoogleTrends was utilized to identify the relative monthly volume of search terms from 2004 to 2009 as a proxy for public awareness. Search trends for“breast cancer”, “colon cancer”, and “cervical cancer” were analyzed and an average monthly search volume index (SVI) was determined. Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Result (SEER) data was analyzed during the same time period. These data were compared using Pearson's correlation coefficient and the chi square test for seasonality. The monthly trends were compared to corresponding cancer awareness month campaigns (breast cancer-October, colon cancer-March, cervical cancer-January). Results: Internet search volume was highest for colon cancer and breast cancer in the respective cancer awareness campaign months. The frequencies of breast cancer and colon cancer diagnoseswere not significantly higher in the respective cancer awareness months. Cervical cancer search volume and cancer diagnoses did not correlate with awareness campaign months. Search volume and cancer diagnoses were not well correlated for breast cancer (r=0.089) or cervical cancer (r=0.228); however, they were significantly correlated for colon cancer (r=0.386; p-value=0.0008). Conclusions: Cancer awareness month campaigns appear to raise public awareness as estimated by internet search volume for breast cancer and colon cancer. Cervical cancer awareness month campaigns do not have the same effect. There is no significant correlation between cancer awareness campaign months and cancer diagnosis incidence for either breast cancer or cervical cancer, whereas there is a significant correlation for colon cancer.

Evaluating the impact of cancer awareness months in Mexico using internet search engine analytics.

2019 ◽  
Vol 37 (15_suppl) ◽  
pp. e18056-e18056
Author(s):  
Jorge Humberto Hernandez-Felix ◽  
Mónica Isabel Meneses Medina ◽  
Edgar Omar Martos Armendariz ◽  
Mauricio Rivera Aguilar ◽  
Vanessa Rosas Camargo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Breast Cancer ◽  
Prostate Cancer ◽  
Colorectal Cancer ◽  
Media Analysis ◽  
Cáncer De Mama ◽  
Internet Search ◽  
Cancer Awareness ◽  
Awareness Campaigns ◽  
Search Volume ◽  
The Impact

e18056 Background: Cancer awareness months (CAM) are a health promotion tool that pursues to increase the public knowledge of a specific type of cancer. Awareness campaigns have benefited from the ease of access to the internet and social media. Analysis of internet search data has been used as an indirect tool to determine the information-seeking patterns of people and may reflect the impact of a campaign. We aim to determine national cancer awareness months’ impact on people’s internet search habits focusing on malignancies that have a specific awareness month in Mexico: breast, colorectal and prostate. Methods: We used Google Trends (GT) to obtain search volume indexes (SVIs), a term designed by GT scaled from 0 to 100 based on total searches during a specified period, of malignancies with an awareness month in Mexico from January 2008 to December 2018. Terms were consulted in Spanish: "cáncer de mama" (breast cancer), "cáncer de colon + cáncer colorrectal" (colon + colorectal cancer), "cáncer de próstata" (prostate cancer). We compared mean SVIs from each cancer awareness month to mean SVIs from the rest of the year using two-tailed two-independent sample T-tests. For prostate and colorectal, SVI’s were compared from the year its CAM was nationally instituted. Results: For breast cancer, mean SVI from October, its awareness month was 54.18 vs 12.09 for the rest of the year (p < 0.001). For colorectal cancer, mean SVI from its awareness month March, was 65.0 vs 55.5 for the rest of the year (p = 0.34). For prostate cancer, mean SVI from November, Mexican prostate awareness month, was 72.0 vs 35.52 for the rest of the year (p = 0.44). Conclusions: Google’s search volume for breast cancer was significantly higher in its awareness month compared to the rest of the year, which proves the impact of its CAM on modifying online activity. For more recently instituted CAMs on prostate and colorectal cancer, search volume didn’t change significantly between their CAM and the rest of the year. There are perhaps lessons to be learned from the breast cancer awareness month campaign which might usefully be adapted for the highest incident malignancies in Mexico.

scholarly journals Innovative Breast Cancer Awareness and Advocacy Campaign

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 169-176 ◽  
Author(s):  
Omolola Salako ◽  
Alero A. Roberts ◽  
Victor I. Isibor ◽  
Oluwatimilehin Babatunde ◽  
Omolara Fatiregun ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Breast Cancer ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Health Care Professionals ◽  
Medical Information ◽  
Additional Treatment ◽  
Breast Health ◽  
Cancer Awareness ◽  
World Record ◽  
Screening Guidelines ◽  
Awareness Campaigns

Breast cancer is a major disease in Nigeria; in 2012, 27,304 new occurrences were diagnosed, and the number of mortalities was 13,960. Greater than 70% of patients present with advanced disease, which has a poor survival outcome. The mortality rates are high mainly because of a lack of awareness about breast health, screening guidelines, and treatment centers, and because of sociocultural barriers. In Nigeria, health care professionals remain the backbone for the provision of medical information to the public. This is a study of the innovative ways that breast health and cancer awareness were promoted across communities and institutions in Lagos State, Nigeria, in 2015. Several community awareness campaigns were carried out in the forms of health talks, breast cancer screenings, radio and television interviews, and campaigns on social media. Anomalies noticed during the screenings were promptly referred to appropriate hospitals for additional treatment. The campaign culminated in the #12KLLP, or 12,000 people light Lagos pink, which was a Guinness World Record attempt for the largest human awareness ribbon formed for breast cancer. There was a total reach of 28,774,812 people across platforms: 285,318 were on social media, 3,620 were in communities, 7,466,276 were on the website, 20 million were through media events, 12,000 were through publications, 7,598 were verified participants at the Guinness World Record, and approximately 1 million were through blogs. Eighty partnerships were made with various private and government institutions to facilitate different aspects of the campaign. The community members were able to learn about the need for early detection and awareness; volunteerism and corporate social responsibility were promoted among individuals and corporate institutions.

scholarly journals Population-Level Interest and Telehealth Capacity of US Hospitals in Response to COVID-19: Cross-Sectional Analysis of Google Search and National Hospital Survey Data (Preprint)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Young-Rock Hong ◽  
John Lawrence ◽  
Dunc Williams Jr ◽  
Arch Mainous III
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Population Level ◽  
The United States ◽  
Health Care Facilities ◽  
Care Providers ◽  
Internet Search ◽  
American Hospital ◽  
Search Volume ◽  
Google Search

BACKGROUND As the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is widely spreading across the United States, there is a concern about the overloading of the nation’s health care capacity. The expansion of telehealth services is expected to deliver timely care for the initial screening of symptomatic patients while minimizing exposure in health care facilities, to protect health care providers and other patients. However, it is currently unknown whether US hospitals have the telehealth capacity to meet the increasing demand and needs of patients during this pandemic. OBJECTIVE We investigated the population-level internet search volume for telehealth (as a proxy of population interest and demand) with the number of new COVID-19 cases and the proportion of hospitals that adopted a telehealth system in all US states. METHODS We used internet search volume data from Google Trends to measure population-level interest in telehealth and telemedicine between January 21, 2020 (when the first COVID-19 case was reported), and March 18, 2020. Data on COVID-19 cases in the United States were obtained from the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resources Center. We also used data from the 2018 American Hospital Association Annual Survey to estimate the proportion of hospitals that adopted telehealth (including telemedicine and electronic visits) and those with the capability of telemedicine intensive care unit (tele-ICU). Pearson correlation was used to examine the relations of population search volume for telehealth and telemedicine (composite score) with the cumulative numbers of COVID-19 cases in the United States during the study period and the proportion of hospitals with telehealth and tele-ICU capabilities. RESULTS We found that US population–level interest in telehealth increased as the number of COVID-19 cases increased, with a strong correlation (<i>r</i>=0.948, <i>P</i>&lt;.001). We observed a higher population-level interest in telehealth in the Northeast and West census region, whereas the proportion of hospitals that adopted telehealth was higher in the Midwest region. There was no significant association between population interest and the proportion of hospitals that adopted telehealth (<i>r</i>=0.055, <i>P</i>=.70) nor hospitals having tele-ICU capability (<i>r</i>=–0.073, <i>P</i>=.61). CONCLUSIONS As the number of COVID-19 cases increases, so does the US population’s interest in telehealth. However, the level of population interest did not correlate with the proportion of hospitals providing telehealth services in the United States, suggesting that increased population demand may not be met with the current telehealth capacity. Telecommunication infrastructures in US hospitals may lack the capability to address the ongoing health care needs of patients with other health conditions. More practical investment is needed to deploy the telehealth system rapidly against the impending patient surge.

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