Comparison of epidemiologic surveillance and Google Trends data on asthma and allergic rhinitis in England

Abstract

To the Editor, Epidemiologic surveillance is the 'ongoing systematic collection, analysis, and implementation of health data essential to the planning, implementation and evaluation of public health practices, closely integrated with the timely dissemination of these data'. 1 Recently, the use of data from internet users' activity-measured with tools such as Google Trends (GTs)-has been proposed to complement 'classical' surveillance approaches. 2 In this context, infectious diseases have been widely studied, 2 but allergic diseases have not, as they are less often targeted by surveillance programmes. In England, however, the Oxford-Royal College of General Practitioners Research Surveillance Centre (RSC) monitors asthma, allergic rhinitis (AR) and respiratory infections, publishing weekly surveillance reports on their incidence. Such reports are based on 'the number of patients [of all ages] consulting [a set of regionally representative primary care centres in England] with new episodes of illness', differentiating incident from follow-up consultations 3 ; methods for ensuring data quality are routinely applied. 3 English general practice is a highly computerized registration-based system, with computerized medical records following the patient when they move practice, ensuring a reliable rate of disease to be reported.

Impact of asthma in Europe: A comparison of web search data in 21 European countries

“…Combined with pollen concentration data, web search data may therefore support monitoring and prediction of asthma incidence and hospitalizations, as has been proposed and attempted previously. 14 , 22 Further studies are needed to verify this approach. Moreover, climate change is already affecting pollen load, leading to higher or lower prevalence, intensity, and duration of sensitization depending on the type of pollen.…”

“…Previous research has examined online search queries for asthma, mainly focusing on allergic rhinitis and pollen season 18 , 19 , 20 and using the relative number of searches. 14 , 21 , 22 Studies comparing the absolute number of searches for different asthma search terms in European countries to investigate possible unmet needs in the European population are still lacking.…”

United States Influenza Search Patterns Since the Emergence of COVID-19: Infodemiology Study

“…Google Trends data have been used to monitor both chronic and acute diseases. Search volume data related to the common cold were found to be correlated with asthma incidence and to forecast asthma hospitalizations [ 8 , 9 ]. Additionally, Fang and colleagues [ 10 ] found that an increase in searches related to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease from 2007 to 2020 was correlated with several estimates of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease morbidity.…”