Potential uses of an infodemiology approach for health-care services for rheumatology

Martinez-Arroyo, Gerardo; Ramos-Gomez, Stephanie; Rojero-Gil, Elias Kaleb; Rojas-Gongora, Joel A; Barajas-Ochoa, Aldo; Bustamante-Montes, Lilia Patricia; Yáñez, José Luis; Ramos-Remus, César

doi:10.1007/s10067-018-4364-z

Cited by 12 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…Within the rheumatology community, Google search data have been integrated into research [8,9]. In the past few years, it was used to assess trends in several rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases such as osteoarthritis [10], fibromyalgia [11], gout [12], ankylosing spondylitis [13], and rheumatoid arthritis [14].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Public interest in musculoskeletal symptoms and disorders during the COVID-19 pandemic

2021

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Objective The goal was to assess public interest in a wide range of musculoskeletal symptoms and disorders during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Methods We searched Google Trends for 118 search queries within the United States. We compared two timeframes of 2020 (March 15–July 4 and July 5–October 31) to similar timeframes over the four prior years (2016–2019). Results In the early pandemic, March 15–July 4, a statistically significant decrease in relative search volume of the majority of queries (60%) was detected, with a significant increase in only 2 queries (i.e. myalgia and toe swelling). In the phase July through October, a statistically significant decrease was detected in only 22% of search queries; there was no difference for 60% of search queries between 2020 and 2016–2019 suggesting a return to their prior levels for most of search queries. Interestingly, the search volume of 18% of search queries (i.e. fatigue, joint pain, muscle pain, myalgia, spondylosis, radiculopathy, myelopathy, neck pain, neck strain, lower back strain, sciatica, shoulder pain, frozen shoulder, elbow pain, lateral epicondylitis, wrist pain, carpal tunnel, hand pain, finger pain, trigger finger, and Morton’s neuroma) was significantly increased compared with the four prior years. Conclusion Public interest focused on COVID-19 and sought online information for COVID-19 symptoms in the early pandemic. In the period July through October, there was an upward trend in musculoskeletal symptoms and some colloquial terms/well-known musculoskeletal conditions coupled with a downward trend in general musculoskeletal disorder terms and certain specific diagnoses. This information may help rheumatologists understand public interest in musculoskeletal symptoms and disorders and address the needs of patients to mitigate the negative impact of the pandemic on outcomes. Supplementary Information The online version of this article (10.1007/s00393-021-00989-2) includes Table 1. Article and supplementary material are available at www.springermedizin.de . Please enter the title of the article in the search field, the supplementary material can be found under “Ergänzende Inhalte”.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Public interest in musculoskeletal symptoms and disorders during the COVID-19 pandemic

2021

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“…To address people's needs for IBD, both diseases should be cross-linked on information providing websites. For both diseases, no seasonal search pattern can be detected, which is contrary to e. g., rheumatoid diseases or irritable bowel syndrome, where a seasonal variety of search volumes has been described [16,18,19], while being in line with the known medical course of IBD, which is unpredictable rather than season-or weather-dependent. Several "stars" or well-known personalities seem to have a deep influence on disease-related searches concerning UC as well as CD.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 85%

“…This data can help to deliver reliable and useful information for IBD patients on the World Wide Web and to increase physicians' awareness of the most common concerns from the patient's perspective. In this context, the phrase "infodemiology" (in a free definition) recognizes the evolution of patient behavior and information distribution driven by digitalization and stresses the need to use and dignify these new avenues to optimize patient care [16].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Infodemiology of Crohn’s disease and Ulcerative colitis using Google Trends – an approach to investigate patient needs

et al. 2020

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Introduction Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) highly affect quality of life. The course of disease and success of treatment are variable. These factors result in a high number of psychiatric comorbidities with patients requiring extensive medical consultation or additional psychotherapy. Unfortunately, time is often limited in daily clinical care, which leaves patients not feeling sufficiently informed about their disease. Patients often compensate by searching the internet, with possibly harmful information. We aim to identify information gaps to allow a more complete education of patients. Methods We analyzed the internet search behavior using the key words [Morbus Crohn] (CD) and [Colitis ulcerosa] (UC) using Google Trends. In addition, we investigated which websites are the first hits on Google, as those are most likely visited by patients. Results Symptoms, nutrition and therapy are central topics for persons interested in IBD. The searches concerning symptoms or therapies do not match the actual incidence or prevalence of comorbidities as well as the more commonly used therapies or established nutritional recommendations. We found a distinct impact of well-known personalities on disease related searches. The first suggested websites on google showed great heterogeneity of responsible publishers, often with possible conflict of interests. In line with those observations, quality of website content is highly heterogeneous. Conclusion This study showed a need of information concerning symptoms, nutrition and therapy that should be considered during patient education. Since time in physician patient dialogue is short it may be helpful to further evaluate websites independently in order to give recommendations of websites offering reliable information.

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“…Despite remarkable success of GoRedW over the past 15 years, awareness remains suboptimal especially among young women and racial and ethnic minority communities [2][3][4]. Patients often use Internet search engines to gather information on diseases, and such query data may provide an important tool for research, public health policies and to assess the impact of health campaigns such as GoRedW [5][6][7][8]. This is the framework of the emerging field of infodemiology that studies the determinants and distribution of health information on electronic media [6][7][8].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Patients often use Internet search engines to gather information on diseases, and such query data may provide an important tool for research, public health policies and to assess the impact of health campaigns such as GoRedW [ 5 - 8 ]. This is the framework of the emerging field of infodemiology that studies the determinants and distribution of health information on electronic media [ 6 - 8 ]. To date, there is no evaluation of the effect of GoRedW on online information seeking, such as the volume of Internet search queries related to CVD in women.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessment of the Effect of the Go Red for Women Campaign on Search Engine Queries for Cardiovascular Disease in Women

et al. 2020

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Background: The Go Red for Women (GoRedW) campaign aims to increase awareness of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and stroke in women. However, assessing the effects of social campaigns on information-seeking behaviors may be challenging. The purpose of this study was to ascertain the effect of GoRedW using a large sample of unbiased real-world data from Google Trends (GTr) and evaluate the temporal correlation of online search queries for CVD and stroke in women with GoRedW. Methods: We conducted a retrospective study using GTr, a public tool from the Google search engine to obtain relative search volumes (RSVs) related to CVD and stroke in women in the period January 2004 to April 2019 in the USA. In addition, trends of GoRedW were compared with those of the well-established Breast Cancer Awareness Month (BCAM) campaign. Results: RSVs increased for queries of GoRedW and all searched terms for CVD but not for stroke in women during February compared to other months of the year without active campaign. The strong pattern with peaks of temporal increase was consistent over the 15-year study period. RSV of "Go Red for Women" in February increased on average 494% (range: 211% to 789%). The highest temporal increase on search queries for CVD was for the term "heart disease (in) women" with an average of 114% (24% to 182%). We found a positive correlation between RSVs of GoRedW and the term "heart disease (in) women" (r = 0.54, P < 0.001). RSVs for "Breast Cancer Awareness Month" had a higher increase during the active campaign month compared to GoRe-dW and showed a stronger positive correlation (r = 0.78, P < 0.001). Conclusions: Search engines are a valuable resource to provide insights on information demand and to assess the effectiveness of social campaigns and interventions. Our study showed an increase in the RSVs for queries of GoRedW and all CVD terms which correlated with the active campaign months over a 15-year period.

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Potential uses of an infodemiology approach for health-care services for rheumatology

Cited by 12 publications

References 14 publications

Public interest in musculoskeletal symptoms and disorders during the COVID-19 pandemic

Public interest in musculoskeletal symptoms and disorders during the COVID-19 pandemic

Infodemiology of Crohn’s disease and Ulcerative colitis using Google Trends – an approach to investigate patient needs

Assessment of the Effect of the Go Red for Women Campaign on Search Engine Queries for Cardiovascular Disease in Women

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