scholarly journals Google Trends for Pain Search Terms in the World’s Most Populated Regions Before and After the First Recorded COVID-19 Case: Infodemiological Study (Preprint)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Istvan-Szilard Szilagyi ◽  
Torsten Ullrich ◽  
Kordula Lang-Illievich ◽  
Christoph Klivinyi ◽  
Gregor Alexander Schittek ◽  
...  

BACKGROUND Web-based analysis of search queries has become a very useful method in various academic fields for understanding timely and regional differences in the public interest in certain terms and concepts. Particularly in health and medical research, Google Trends has been increasingly used over the last decade. OBJECTIVE This study aimed to assess the search activity of pain-related parameters on Google Trends from among the most populated regions worldwide over a 3-year period from before the report of the first confirmed COVID-19 cases in these regions (January 2018) until December 2020. METHODS Search terms from the following regions were used for the analysis: India, China, Europe, the United States, Brazil, Pakistan, and Indonesia. In total, 24 expressions of pain location were assessed. Search terms were extracted using the local language of the respective country. Python scripts were used for data mining. All statistical calculations were performed through exploratory data analysis and nonparametric Mann–Whitney <i>U</i> tests. RESULTS Although the overall search activity for pain-related terms increased, apart from pain entities such as headache, chest pain, and sore throat, we observed discordant search activity. Among the most populous regions, pain-related search parameters for shoulder, abdominal, and chest pain, headache, and toothache differed significantly before and after the first officially confirmed COVID-19 cases (for all, <i>P</i>&lt;.001). In addition, we observed a heterogenous, marked increase or reduction in pain-related search parameters among the most populated regions. CONCLUSIONS As internet searches are a surrogate for public interest, we assume that our data are indicative of an increased incidence of pain after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, as these increased incidences vary across geographical and anatomical locations, our findings could potentially facilitate the development of specific strategies to support the most affected groups.

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 137-139
Author(s):  
Jasmine Garg ◽  
Abigail Cline ◽  
Frederick Pereira

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.


2019 ◽  
Vol 40 (11) ◽  
pp. 1253-1262 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan D Tijerina ◽  
Shane D Morrison ◽  
Ian T Nolan ◽  
Matthew J Parham ◽  
Rahim Nazerali

Abstract Background Google Trends (GT) provides cost-free, customizable analyses of search traffic for specified terms entered into Google’s search engine. GT may inform plastic surgery marketing decisions and resource allocation. Objectives The aim of this study was to determine GT’s utility in tracking and predicting public interest in nonsurgical cosmetic procedures and to examine trends over time of public interest in nonsurgical procedures. Methods GT search volume for terms in 6 ASPS and ASAPS nonsurgical procedure categories (Botox injections, chemical peel, laser hair removal, laser skin resurfacing, microdermabrasion and soft tissue fillers [subcategories: collagen, fat, and hyaluronic acid]) were compared with ASPS and ASAPS case volumes for available dates between January 2004 and March 2019 with the use of univariate linear regression, taking P &lt; 0.01 as the cutoff for significance. Results Total search volume varied by search term within the United States and internationally. Significant positive correlations were demonstrated for 17 GT terms in all 6 ASPS and ASAPS categories: “Botox®,” “collagen injections,” “collagen lip injections” with both databases; and “chemical skin peel,” “skin peel,” “acne scar treatment,” “CO2 laser treatment,” “dermabrasion,” “collagen injections,” “collagen lip injections,” “fat transfer,” “hyaluronic acid fillers,” “hyaluronic acid injection,” “hyaluronic acid injections,” “Juvederm®,” and “fat transfer” with just 1 database. Many search terms were not significant, emphasizing the need for careful selection of search terms. Conclusions Our analysis further elaborates on recent characterization of GT as a powerful and intuitive data set for plastic surgeons, with the potential to accurately gauge global and national interest in topics and procedures related to nonsurgical cosmetic procedures.


2019 ◽  
Vol 131 (6) ◽  
pp. 1264-1275
Author(s):  
Nirav Shah ◽  
Anik Sinha ◽  
Aleda Thompson ◽  
Kevin Tremper ◽  
Arjun Meka ◽  
...  

Abstract Editor’s Perspective What We Already Know about This Topic What This Article Tells Us That Is New Background Perioperative controlled substance diversion and tracking have received increased regulatory focus throughout the United States. The authors’ institution developed and implemented an automated web-based software application for perioperative controlled substance management. The authors hypothesized that implementation of such a system reduces errors as measured by missing controlled substance medications, missing controlled substance kits (a package of multiple controlled substance medications), and missing witness signatures during kit return. Methods From December 1, 2014 to March 31, 2017, the authors obtained missing controlled substance medication, controlled substance kit, and witness return signature data during the preimplementation, implementation, and study period of the controlled substance management application at a single university hospital. This before and after study was based on a QI project at the authors’ institution. The authors included all cases requiring anesthesia services. The primary outcome of this study was the rate of missing controlled substance medications. Secondary outcomes included rates for kits not returned to pharmacy and missing kit return witness signatures. Results There were 54,302 cases during the preimplementation period, 57,670 cases during the implementation period, and 65,911 cases during the study period. The number of missing controlled substance medication (difference 0.7 per 1,000 cases; 95% CI, 0.38–1.02; P &lt; 0.001) and kit return errors (difference 0.45 per 1,000 cases; 95% CI, 0.24–0.66, P &lt; 0.001) declined after implementation of the application. There was no difference in the number of missing witness return signatures (difference 0.09 per 1,000 cases; 95% CI, −0.08 to 0.26, P = 0.350). A user survey with 206 of 485 (42%) response rate demonstrated that providers believed the new application managed controlled substances better than the previous system. Conclusions A software application that tracks perioperative controlled substance kits with deep integration into the electronic health record and pharmacy systems is associated with a decrease in management errors.


Blood ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 126 (23) ◽  
pp. 4453-4453 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adeel M Khan ◽  
Alok A. Khorana

Abstract Background: Analysis of internet search traffic has provided a new proxy measure into the trends and patterns of patients' diseases and their information-seeking behaviors. In recent years, Google Trends has become a data resource of interest given its status as the largest internet search provider in the world with publicly-viewable, passively-collected, and expansive data on any searchable term or combination of terms. For instance, search terms related to influenza (e.g. fever) predicted influenza spread faster than standard surveillance as shown by Ginsberg et al in Nature 2009. The true outpatient burden and incidence of venous thromboembolism (VTE) has long been debated. Extant VTE data are limited to cases that present to medical attention, thus missing any cases that do not come to an emergency department or clinic. We hypothesized that Google Trends analysis offers potential insight into the general populations' blood clot burden and awareness. This study aimed to explore general trends of VTE-related terms and seasonal variation in searches. Methods: Google Trends was utilized to obtain relative search engine traffic values (defined as search volume indices, SVIs) for terms related to DVT in the United States from summer 2004 - winter 2015. Terms related to LEG SWELLING, CALF PAIN, VARICOSE VEINS, and LEG CLOT were used and combined with Boolean operators to combine similar terms. A separate search occurred for BLOOD CLOT and related terms to investigate awareness of VTEs. Analysis was performed in R (V3.1.1) in accordance with previously published Google Trends investigations. Results: The average relative volume of searches was highest for VARICOSE VEINS and lowest for LEG SWELLING by approximately 3.2 fold. A seasonal pattern was seen with summer months (May-Aug) having higher SVIs than winter months (Nov-Feb) for all terms in the 11 year study period except for BLOOD CLOT. Using a Wilcoxon signed rank test, mean SVI difference comparing summer to winter for LEG SWELLING showed W = 66 (p = 0.004), for CALF PAIN W = 66 (p = 0.003), for VARICOSE VEINS W = 67 (p = 0.004), and for LEG CLOT W = 65 (p = 0.005). For BLOOD CLOT, a gradual increase in SVIs was seen and characterized by a Mann-Kendall test as having a significant positive trend, S = 898, p = 0.024. Conclusions: Search terms related to VTE in the United States show a strong seasonal pattern with greater search activity in summer months compared to winters months. These data suggest a higher incidence and burden of VTE in the summer. This challenges previous notions of a weakly higher incidence of VTE in winter months, calculated as a relative risk of 1.143 by Dentali et al in 2011. The gradual increase in relative search traffic for BLOOD CLOT terms reflects a likely rising awareness and/or true rise in the incidence of VTEs in the United States from 2004-2015. Further studies should investigate whether internet search traffic correlates directly with total yearly DVT incidence rates. Keywords: Population, venous thromboembolism, incidence Figure 1. Figure 1. Figure 2. Figure 2. Disclosures Khorana: Leo Pharma: Consultancy, Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Janssen: Consultancy, Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Daiichi Sankyo: Consultancy, Honoraria; sanofi: Consultancy, Honoraria; Pfizer: Consultancy, Honoraria; Boehringer-Ingelheim: Consultancy, Honoraria.


Author(s):  
Istvan Szilard Szilagyi ◽  
Torsten Ulrich ◽  
Kordula Lang-Illievich ◽  
Christoph Klivinyi ◽  
Gregor Alexander Schittek ◽  
...  

Plants ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (9) ◽  
pp. 1248
Author(s):  
Tapan Kumar Mohanta ◽  
Yugal Kishore Mohanta ◽  
Dhananjay Yadav ◽  
Abeer Hashem ◽  
Elsayed Fathi Abd_Allah ◽  
...  

The lines of research conducted within a country often reflect its focus on current and future economic needs. Analyzing “search” trends on the internet can provide important insight into predicting the direction of a country in regards to agriculture, health, economy, and other areas. ‘Google Trends’ collects data on search terms from different countries, and this information can be used to better understand sentiments in different countries and regions. Agricultural output is responsible for feeding the world and there is a continuous quest to find ways to make agriculture more productive, safe, and reliable. The application of phytohormones has been used in agriculture world-wide for many years to improve crop production and continues to be an active area of research for the application in plants. Therefore, in the current study, we searched ‘Google Trends’ using the phytohormone search terms, abscisic acid, auxins, brassinosteroids, cytokinin, ethylene, gibberellins, jasmonic acid, salicylic acid, and strigolactones. The results indicated that the African country Zambia had the greatest number of queries on auxin research, and Kenya had the most queries in cytokinin and gibberellin research world-wide. For other phytohormones, India had the greatest number of queries for abscisic acid and South Korea had the greatest number of ethylene and jasmonic acid search world-wide. Queries on salicylic acid have been continuously increasing while the least number of queries were related to strigolactones. Only India and United States of America had significant numbers of queries on all nine phytohormones while queries on one or more phytohormones were absent in other countries. India is one of the top five crop-producing countries in the world for apples, millet, orange, potato, pulses, rice, sugarcane, tea, and wheat. Similarly, the United States of America is one of the top five crop-producing countries of the world for apples, grapes, maze, orange, potato, sorghum, sugarcane, and wheat. These might be the most possible factors for the search queries found for all the nine phytohormones in India and the United States of America.


10.2196/22880 ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. e22880
Author(s):  
Milad Asgari Mehrabadi ◽  
Nikil Dutt ◽  
Amir M Rahmani

Background The COVID-19 pandemic has affected virtually every region in the world. At the time of this study, the number of daily new cases in the United States was greater than that in any other country, and the trend was increasing in most states. Google Trends provides data regarding public interest in various topics during different periods. Analyzing these trends using data mining methods may provide useful insights and observations regarding the COVID-19 outbreak. Objective The objective of this study is to consider the predictive ability of different search terms not directly related to COVID-19 with regard to the increase of daily cases in the United States. In particular, we are concerned with searches related to dine-in restaurants and bars. Data were obtained from the Google Trends application programming interface and the COVID-19 Tracking Project. Methods To test the causation of one time series on another, we used the Granger causality test. We considered the causation of two different search query trends related to dine-in restaurants and bars on daily positive cases in the US states and territories with the 10 highest and 10 lowest numbers of daily new cases of COVID-19. In addition, we used Pearson correlations to measure the linear relationships between different trends. Results Our results showed that for states and territories with higher numbers of daily cases, the historical trends in search queries related to bars and restaurants, which mainly occurred after reopening, significantly affected the number of daily new cases on average. California, for example, showed the most searches for restaurants on June 7, 2020; this affected the number of new cases within two weeks after the peak, with a P value of .004 for the Granger causality test. Conclusions Although a limited number of search queries were considered, Google search trends for restaurants and bars showed a significant effect on daily new cases in US states and territories with higher numbers of daily new cases. We showed that these influential search trends can be used to provide additional information for prediction tasks regarding new cases in each region. These predictions can help health care leaders manage and control the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on society and prepare for its outcomes.


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