Using Google Trends to understand information-seeking behaviour about throat cancer

Faoury, Morad; Upile, Tahwinder; Patel, Nimesh

doi:10.1017/s0022215119001348

Cited by 14 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…In recent years, GT was often used for infodemiological assessment of different medical phenomena [ 9 – 15 ]. As shown by Kang et al [ 34 ], GT has been proven to be a good complementary source for surveillance of annual influenza outbreaks and noted that GT could be used for detecting early signals of major outbreaks.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It involves the analysis of online search patterns to gain more insight on human behavior to inform medical professionals [ 9 ]. Indeed, several medical reports assessed the seasonality of different symptoms and diseases, such as tinnitus, epistaxis, laryngitis or dengue fever using GT [ 9 – 15 ]. However, up to now, literature has been sparse on web-based inquiries regarding acute pharyngitis or its most common symptoms.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Peaks in online inquiries into pharyngitis-related symptoms correspond with annual incidence rates

Brkic

Besser

Janik

et al. 2020

Eur Arch Otorhinolaryngol

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Objective To assess whether web-based public inquiries into pharyngitis-related search terms follow annual incidence peaks of acute pharyngitis in various countries from both hemispheres. Methods Google Trends (GT) was utilized for systematic acquisition of pharyngitis-related search terms (sore throat, cough, fever, cold). Six countries from both hemispheres including four English (United Kingdom, United States, Canada, and Australia) and two non-English speaking countries (Austria and Germany) were selected for further analysis. Time series data on relative search interest for pharyngitis-related search terms, covering a timeframe between 2004 and 2019 were extracted. Following reliability analysis using the intra-class correlation coefficient, the cosinor time series analysis was utilized to determine annual peaks in public-inquiries. Results The extracted datasets of GT proved to be highly reliable with correlation coefficients ranging from 0.83 to 1.0. Graphical visualization showed annual seasonal peaks for pharyngitis-related search terms in all included countries. The cosinor time series analysis revealed these peaks to be statistically significant during winter months (all p < 0.001). Conclusion Our study revealed seasonal variations for pharyngitis-related terms which corresponded to winter incidence peaks of acute pharyngitis. These results highlight the need for easily accessible information on diagnosis, therapy, and red-flag symptoms for this common disease. Accurately informed patients might contribute to a reduction of unnecessary clinic visits and potentially cutback the futile antibiotic overuse.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Peaks in online inquiries into pharyngitis-related symptoms correspond with annual incidence rates

Brkic

Besser

Janik

et al. 2020

Eur Arch Otorhinolaryngol

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“…In this sense, media coverage seems to be an important explanatory factor [26]. An example of how the media can affect this analysis was recently presented by Faoury et al [27] and colleagues this year, in which throat cancer searches presented three peaks during the analysed period and these peaks were mostly related to a famous actor’s throat cancer diagnosis and news related to this case.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The impact of cancer campaigns in Brazil: a Google Trends analysis

Quintanilha

Souza

Sanches

et al. 2019

ecancer

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It is estimated that more than 600,000 new cases of cancer will be reported in Brazil during the 2018–2019 biennium, especially with regard to prostate, breast, lung and colorectal cancers. Due to the high prevalence, incidence and mortality rates of these diseases, cancer campaigns such as ‘Pink October’ and ‘Blue November’ were strongly promoted in the past decade throughout the country to raise awareness of breast and prostate cancer, respectively. Nevertheless, whether the implementation of these campaigns has been proven efficient is still unknown. In the present study, we analysed the effectiveness of these campaigns on eliciting population online interest for cancer information. The Google Trends database was evaluated for the relative Internet search popularity for the terms ‘breast cancer’ and ‘prostate cancer’ from 2014 to 2019. Aside from some regional differences, we found that there was a high demand for ‘breast cancer’ and, to a lesser extent, ‘prostate cancer’ searches in a seasonal fashion (during October and November, respectively). Despite the worldwide high incidence of lung and colorectal cancers, searches including these keywords did not show increases in any specific period of the year, demonstrating the efficiency of the ‘Pink October’ and ‘Blue November’ campaigns in engaging the interest of the Brazilian population on the subject. These results allow us to infer that campaigns are effective in mobilising the attention of the Brazilian population with regard to breast and prostate cancers, but the practical aspects in reducing incidence and mortality should still be discussed.

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“…Research in the field of health is one of the pioneers in using Google Trends to map information searches related to health topics. For example, the search for the topic of "throat cancer" is high when news of new treatment technologies is discovered (Faoury et al, 2019). Several other health studies also use Google Trends to predict outbreaks of disease in an area (Eysenbach, 2011;Ginsberg et al, 2009;Polgreen et al, 2008b).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Google Trends is one of the products of Google Inc., which serves to present a keyword index used by internet users in information search activities within a specified period and specific geographical areas (Choi & Varian, 2012;Tijerina et al, 2019). The data of the search results are presented in the range of 0-100, with the peak point of the search will get a value of 100 (Choi & Varian, 2012;Faoury et al, 2019). This value is obtained by comparing the number of searches for certain keywords with the number of searches that exist on Google at a certain period (Choi & Varian, 2012).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Google Trends and Information Seeking Trend of COVID-19 in Indonesia

Limilia

Pratamawaty

2020

aspikom

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WHO has declared COVID-19 as a pandemic due to its rapid increase in cases outside China. COVID-19 has also affected a growing number of countries. However, the Indonesia government responded to the declaration in a not-serious manner, which has generated uncertainty circumstance among its public. This circumstance has driven people to consume information as much as they are possible to consume. This study aims to map out the trend of information-seeking concerning COVID-19 in Indonesia using Google Trends and to compare it to the information available on Indonesia's Ministry of Health official website from January until March. This study was descriptive quantitative, which used Google Trends as data collection tools. The research found that information seeking concerning COVID-19 has been increasing since the end of January. Government statements were found as the trigger of the information-seeking activity escalation and also served as the reason behind different information-seeking trends each month.

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Using Google Trends to understand information-seeking behaviour about throat cancer

Cited by 14 publications

References 9 publications

Peaks in online inquiries into pharyngitis-related symptoms correspond with annual incidence rates

Peaks in online inquiries into pharyngitis-related symptoms correspond with annual incidence rates

The impact of cancer campaigns in Brazil: a Google Trends analysis

Google Trends and Information Seeking Trend of COVID-19 in Indonesia

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