scholarly journals Initial Observations of Psychological and Behavioral Effects of COVID-19 in the United States, Using Google Trends Data

Author(s):  
Daniel S Goldman

Google Trends offers researchers a glimpse inside the minds of a large group of people, all at once, and offers a very high resolution as well. As a result, trend data may be useful for identifying rapid changes in day to day psychological states and behaviors associated with the COVID-19 outbreak. This paper analyzes stress related search terms as well as food related search terms, and identifies changes in patterns for each that appear to be associated with the outbreak.

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.


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.


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.


Author(s):  
Belén Mora Garijo ◽  
Jonathan E. Katz ◽  
Aubrey Greer ◽  
Mia Gonzalgo ◽  
Alejandro García López ◽  
...  

AbstractSeveral diseases associated with erectile dysfunction (ED), such as type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and coronary artery disease (CAD), are known to have seasonal variation, with increased incidence during winter months. However, no literature exists on whether this chronological-seasonal evolution is also present within ED symptomatology. We hypothesized ED would follow the seasonal pattern of its lifestyle-influenced comorbid conditions and exhibit increased incidence during winter months. In order to investigate the seasonal variation of ED in the United States between 2009 and 2019, Internet search query data were obtained using Google Trends. Normalized search volume was determined during the winter and summer seasons for ED, other diseases known to be significantly associated with ED (T2DM and CAD), kidney stones (positive control), and prostate cancer (negative control). There were significantly more internet search queries for ED during the winter than during the summer (p = 0.001). CAD and T2DM also had significantly increased search volume during winter months compared to summer months (p < 0.001 and p = 0.011, respectively). By contrast, searches for kidney stones were significantly increased in the summer than in the winter (p < 0.001). There was no significant seasonal variation in the relative search frequency for prostate cancer (p = 0.75). In conclusion, Google Trends internet search data across a ten-year period in the United States suggested a seasonal variation in ED, which implies an increase in ED during winter. This novel finding in ED epidemiology may help increase awareness of ED’s associated lifestyle risk factors, which may facilitate early medical evaluation and treatment for those at risk of both ED and cardiovascular disease.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ben Orsburn

AbstractThe production of hemp and products derived from these plants that contain zero to trace amounts of the psychoactive cannabinoid tetrahydrocannabidiol (THC) is a rapidly growing new market in the United States. The most common products today contain relatively high concentrations of the compound cannabidiol (CBD). Recent studies have investigated commercial CBD products using targeted assays and have found varying degrees of misrepresentation and contamination of these products. To expand on previous studies, we demonstrate the application of non-targeted screening by high resolution accurate mass spectrometry to more comprehensively identify potential adulterants and contaminants. We find evidence to support previous conclusions that CBD products are commonly misrepresented in terms of cannabinoid concentrations present. Specifically, we observe a wide variation in relative THC concentrations across the product tested, with some products containing 10-fold more relative signal than others. In addition, we find that several products appear to be purposely adulterated with over the counter drugs such as caffeine and melatonin. We also observe multiple small molecule contaminants that are typically linked to improper production or packaging methods in food or pharmaceutical production. Finally, we present high resolution accurate mass spectrometry data and tandem MS/MS fragments supporting the presence of trace amounts of fluorofentanyl in a single mail order CBD product. We conclude that the CBD industry would benefit from more robust testing regulations and that the cannabis testing industry, in general, would benefit from the use of non-targeted screening technologies.


1982 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 275-279

The results of the surveys conducted in France and the United States reveal not only current attitudes and perceptions of the people, but more importantly, on those questions where trend data are available, the changes in attitudes which have occurred over the past six years can be measured.


2021 ◽  
pp. 0192513X2110551
Author(s):  
Melanie Stearns ◽  
Erica Szkody ◽  
Cliff McKinney

Although much research has investigated parenting styles, few studies have examined parenting across regions of the United States. The current study used a nationwide sample to examine perceived maternal and paternal parenting in four regions of the United States: Northeast, South, Midwest, and West. Participants included 1080 emerging adults who answered questionnaires regarding their perceptions of maternal and paternal parenting styles using an online survey. In all regions, the largest profile indicated a parenting style of High Authoritative/Authoritarian and Moderate Permissive mothers and fathers. Similarly, all regions indicated profiles that were High or Very High Authoritarian mothers and fathers. All regions except the West had a profile with High Authoritative mothers and High or Very High Authoritarian fathers. The Northeast, South, and West also had unique profiles found only in those regions. Thus, results indicate similarities as well as distinct differences in parenting style across regions of the United States.


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