An online longitudinal study about search index reflexing public attention of vaccinate against COVID-19

Abstract

Background The coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19) has had catastrophic effects worldwide. Mounting efforts for vaccination against COVID-19 have achieved tremendous progress. Online searching is a voluntary behavior of people might reflect the public attention and awareness.. Screening and analyzing the details of vaccine related searches may help the government to grasp the trend of public opinion and provide a reference for vaccination strategies and future efforts to protect public health. Methods Three terms related to COVID-19 and COVID-19 vaccine as well as daily relative search volumes (RSV) were retrieved in the Baidu Index (BDI) from 1 January 2020 to 1 July 2021 in China. Besides the national total data, those of the individual provinces/cities/region of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong, Heilongjiang, Sichuan, and Tibet were also included. Vaccine-related policies were also gathered during this period. The vaccination rates within China were derived from the National Health Commission of the People’s Republic of China, from 23 March 2021 to 1 July 2021. The searching index was calculated by the searching volume and curve graphs were used to demonstrate the variation and the related trend of the RSV and vaccination rates. Results A total of 548 days’ BDI data were retrieved. The national and provincial curves of the BDI exhibited similar fluctuating upward trends, with 5 obvious rises, especially in COVID-19 vaccine searching volume. The vaccination number was correlated with the searching volume growth of COVID-19 vaccine and vaccine uptake (r=0.382, P<0.001; r=0.256, P=0.010). Relevant vaccination events corresponded to the variation searching trend and were attributed to or were influenced by the searching variation. Conclusions Public awareness about vaccination against COVID-19 was related to the implementation of vaccine policies. Positive vaccine-related policy and high public awareness about vaccination could play a vital role in maximizing the vaccination uptake. Advanced internet data grabbing could consolidate public information in an efficient and timely manner. These findings would support efforts to utilize the big data monitoring of the public opinion to forecast and guide the public health policies. Dynamic monitoring as well as prevention and timely adjustment under this supervision could be expected.

Trends in the Baidu Index in Search Activity Related to Mpox at Geographical and Economic Levels and Associated Factors in China: National Longitudinal Analysis

“…Therefore, evidence for interest in mpox in China is still needed to provide a reference for information management related to the spread of infectious diseases that have become a subject of public interest [11]. Online search activity reflects matters of concern in a population, and this activity is commonly captured by internet search engines, such as the Baidu index in China [12][13][14]. We used the Baidu index in this study to determine trends in online search activity related to mpox and changes in this activity after 4 key cutoff time points (the first imported mpox case in Taiwan, the announcement of a PHEIC, the first imported mpox case in Hong Kong, and the first imported mpox case in Chongqing) using a time-series interrupted analysis to obtain evidence for comprehensive information management at the geographical level.…”