Using internet search queries for infectious disease surveillance: screening diseases for suitability

Milinovich, Gabriel; Avril, Simon M R; Clements, Archie C. A.; Brownstein, John S.; Tong, Shilu; Hu, Wenbiao

doi:10.1186/s12879-014-0690-1

Cited by 70 publications

(80 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…This study aimed to investigate the capacity of internet-based approaches to help monitoring a wide range of seasonal and non-seasonal infectious diseases in Australia. The results were consistent with our previous study that assessed the level of correlation between monthly search metrics and disease notification14. Based on the Spearman correlation results, eight diseases exhibited high degree of correlation with the investigated search metrics and were identified as having promise for nowcasting.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

“…Data sources used for this may include online news stories or case reports, as is used by HealthMap7 (http://healthmap.org/); Wikipedia access logs8; social media (such as Twitter)91011; or may use participatory approaches (crowdsourcing) for data collection12. The majority of work has, however, focused on the use of Internet search metrics6131415. Approaches based on internet search metrics hypothesize that, when people contract a disease, they will search for information on their condition/symptoms on the internet and that accurate estimates of disease occurrence in the community may be produced by monitoring changes in the frequency of specific searches.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As search-query based surveillance systems rely upon health seeking behaviour of the general public, they are heavily influenced by the public’s knowledge, attitudes and behaviour. Whilst there is an increasing body of work describing the relationship between search metrics and disease notification rates, including our own studies1422, little work has been done for diseases unrelated to influenza-like illness.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Disease surveillance based on Internet-based linear models: an Australian case study of previously unmodeled infection diseases

Rohart

Milinovich

Avril³

et al. 2016

Sci Rep

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Effective disease surveillance is critical to the functioning of health systems. Traditional approaches are, however, limited in their ability to deliver timely information. Internet-based surveillance systems are a promising approach that may circumvent many of the limitations of traditional health surveillance systems and provide more intelligence on cases of infection, including cases from those that do not use the healthcare system. Infectious disease surveillance systems built on Internet search metrics have been shown to produce accurate estimates of disease weeks before traditional systems and are an economically attractive approach to surveillance; they are, however, also prone to error under certain circumstances. This study sought to explore previously unmodeled diseases by investigating the link between Google Trends search metrics and Australian weekly notification data. We propose using four alternative disease modelling strategies based on linear models that studied the length of the training period used for model construction, determined the most appropriate lag for search metrics, used wavelet transformation for denoising data and enabled the identification of key search queries for each disease. Out of the twenty-four diseases assessed with Australian data, our nowcasting results highlighted promise for two diseases of international concern, Ross River virus and pneumococcal disease.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Disease surveillance based on Internet-based linear models: an Australian case study of previously unmodeled infection diseases

Rohart

Milinovich

Avril³

et al. 2016

Sci Rep

Self Cite

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“…Notably, the use of Web-based data heavily relies on crowdsourcing from the public and their engagement online. Similarly, other applications such as digital disease detection and surveillance work on a similar basis to effectively utilize the continuous generation of Web-based data from this growing digital age [3,4]. However, in this study, the applications of infoveillance in health research are specifically evaluated.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…There is strong evidence regarding the predictive utility of search activity and infectious disease outbreak from digital epidemiologic studies. Milinovich et al [4] identified 17 infectious diseases that were positively correlated with search activity trends on Google, with a majority being vaccine-preventable, vector-borne, and sexually transmitted diseases. Most recently, the Colombian Zika virus outbreak showed positive association with search activities made on Google [5].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Disease Monitoring and Health Campaign Evaluation Using Google Search Activities for HIV and AIDS, Stroke, Colorectal Cancer, and Marijuana Use in Canada: A Retrospective Observational Study

Ling¹,

Lee²

2016

JMIR Public Health Surveill

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BackgroundInfodemiology can offer practical and feasible health research applications through the practice of studying information available on the Web. Google Trends provides publicly accessible information regarding search behaviors in a population, which may be studied and used for health campaign evaluation and disease monitoring. Additional studies examining the use and effectiveness of Google Trends for these purposes remain warranted.ObjectiveThe objective of our study was to explore the use of infodemiology in the context of health campaign evaluation and chronic disease monitoring. It was hypothesized that following a launch of a campaign, there would be an increase in information seeking behavior on the Web. Second, increasing and decreasing disease patterns in a population would be associated with search activity patterns. This study examined 4 different diseases: human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection, stroke, colorectal cancer, and marijuana use.MethodsUsing Google Trends, relative search volume data were collected throughout the period of February 2004 to January 2015. Campaign information and disease statistics were obtained from governmental publications. Search activity trends were graphed and assessed with disease trends and the campaign interval. Pearson product correlation statistics and joinpoint methodology analyses were used to determine significance.ResultsDisease patterns and online activity across all 4 diseases were significantly correlated: HIV infection (r=.36, P<.001), stroke (r=.40, P<.001), colorectal cancer (r= −.41, P<.001), and substance use (r=.64, P<.001). Visual inspection and the joinpoint analysis showed significant correlations for the campaigns on colorectal cancer and marijuana use in stimulating search activity. No significant correlations were observed for the campaigns on stroke and HIV regarding search activity.ConclusionsThe use of infoveillance shows promise as an alternative and inexpensive solution to disease surveillance and health campaign evaluation. Further research is needed to understand Google Trends as a valid and reliable tool for health research.

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The Potential of Social Media and Internet-Based Data in Preventing and Fighting Infectious Diseases: From Internet to Twitter

Al-Surimi

Khalifa

Bahkali

et al. 2016

Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology

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Health threats due to infectious diseases used to be a major public health concerns around the globe till mid of twentieth century when effective public health interventions helped in eradicating a number of infectious diseases around the world. Over the past 15 years, there has been a rise in the number of emerging and reemerging infectious diseases being reported such as the Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in 2002, HINI in 2009, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) in 2012, Ebola in 2014, and Zika in 2016. These emerging viral infectious diseases have led to serious public health concerns leading to death and causing fear and anxiety among the public. More importantly, at the moment, the prevention and control of viral infectious diseases is difficult due to a lack of effective vaccines. Thus having real-time reporting tools are paramount to alert relevant public health surveillance systems and authorities about taking the right and necessary actions to control and minimize the potential harmful effects of viral infectious diseases. Social media and Internet-based data can play a major role in real-time reporting to empower active public health surveillance systems for controlling and fighting infectious diseases.

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Using internet search queries for infectious disease surveillance: screening diseases for suitability

Cited by 70 publications

References 35 publications

Disease surveillance based on Internet-based linear models: an Australian case study of previously unmodeled infection diseases

Disease surveillance based on Internet-based linear models: an Australian case study of previously unmodeled infection diseases

Disease Monitoring and Health Campaign Evaluation Using Google Search Activities for HIV and AIDS, Stroke, Colorectal Cancer, and Marijuana Use in Canada: A Retrospective Observational Study

The Potential of Social Media and Internet-Based Data in Preventing and Fighting Infectious Diseases: From Internet to Twitter

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