Digital behavior surveillance: Monitoring dental caries and toothache interests of Google users from developing countries

Abstract

Objective To determine the differences between the levels of interest of South American Google users on information related to dental caries and toothache over time. Materials and methods The monthly variation of Relative Search Volume (RSV) for both queries was obtained in Google Trends between 2004 and 2017. The association between RSVs, Internet penetration, and disability‐adjusted life‐years (DALYs) for dental caries in permanent teeth were tested by distinct regression models. Forecasting ARIMA models were developed to analyze trends and predict the interests until December 2018. Results In general, toothache‐related searches presented an uptrend associated positively with Internet penetration and negatively with DALYs, whereas dental caries‐related searches presented a downtrend associated negatively with Internet penetration and positively with DALYs. The seasonality affected only dental caries curves, with the highest rates observed in the first trimester and the lowest rates in June, July, and December. Conclusion The levels of interests of South American Google users in seeking dental caries and toothache information appear to have a direct connection with the burden of untreated dental caries lesions and Internet penetration. The no association between dental caries‐ and toothache‐related interests reinforces the unfamiliarity of most people about the relationship of dental pain with the final stages of chronic oral diseases.

Individual and contextual determinants of dental pain in adolescents: Evidence from a national survey

“…A cross‐sectional study was carried out including individual data on adolescent students and contextual data on the schools they attended and the cities where they lived. Individual and school data were obtained from the National Adolescent School‐based Health Survey (PeNSE), carried out in 2015 by the Ministry of Health and the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (). This is a cross‐sectional study, planned to be held every three years starting in 2009, as part of the Brazilian Surveillance of Risk and Protective Factors for Chronic Diseases.…”

“…Self‐reported dental pain and a large set of variables regarding risk and protective factors have been included in the Brazilian National Adolescent School‐Based Health Survey, PeNSE (Brazilian Institute of Geography & Statistics, ). The availability of national data from a large and representative sample is relevant to test the hypothesis that dental pain among adolescents may be affected not only by their individual characteristics and the aspects of the cities where they live, but also by the factors related to the schools they attend.…”

The Prevalence of Periodontal Diseases in Portugal and Correspondent Digital National Awareness: Analysis of Data from Global Burden of Disease, Directorate-General of Health and Google Trends for the Period 2004-2017

“…Google ® Trends is a reliable epidemiologic tendency research tool of specific diseases or groups of symptoms 12 and has been investigated for surveillance of disease outbreaks like Dengue, Malaria, Enteric fever and the Flu [13][14][15][16][17] . Furthermore, Google ® Trends has also been used to examine the impact of HIV/AIDS news coverage on web search in Hong Kong 18 and to investigate and monitorin the interests on toothache information of Google ® users from the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, and Brazil 21,22 . Nevertheless, this is the first study that uses Google ® Trends to analyze the population awareness/interest for periodontal diseases terms in the web.…”

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“…Finally, a new YouTubebased difference found in the last year of analysis can be related to the mobile access to the Internet, which differs in diffusion, cost and quality according to countries (Fox & Duggan, 2013). The growing interest in toothache observed in both platforms can be justified by the negative impact of untreated dental caries in permanent teeth on the quality of life of individuals (Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, 2018), being related to the self-resolution of oral symptoms (Cruvinel et al, 2019). This behavior is motivated by financial barriers for dental treatment, due to high expenses of private services and insufficient offering of public attendance (Dhama et al, 2016).…”

“…Unfortunately, oral diseases continue to be extremely prevalent among distinct populations, contributing to the onset of painful symptoms in dental tissues and adjacent structures (Pitts et al, 2011;Cohen et al, 2008;Peres et al 2010). These conditions affect preferably social deprived groups, most commonly found in developing countries (Santiago, Valença, & Vettore, 2013;da Cunha et al, 2017). The preferences of Web users can be influenced by distinct factors of populations, such as the ability of obtaining, processing, and understanding health information adequately (Levin-Zamir & Bertschi, 2018).…”