Jinhee Lee1, Yunna Kwan2,1, Jun Young Lee3, Jae Il Shin4, Keum Hwa Lee4, Sung Hwi Hong5, Young Joo Han6, Andreas Kronbichler7, Lee Smith8, Ai Koyanagi9,10, Louis Jacob9,11, SungWon Choi2, Ramy Abou Ghayda12,13, Myung-Bae Park14. 1. Department of Psychiatry, Yonsei University Wonju College of Medicine, Ilsan-ro 20, Wonju, KR. 2. Department of Psychology, Duksung Women's University, 33, Samyang-ro 144-gil, Dobong-gu, seoul, KR. 3. Department of Nephrology, Yonsei UniversityWonju College of Medicine, Wonju, KR. 4. Department of Pediatrics, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, KR. 5. Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, KR. 6. Department of Pediatrics, Samsung Changwon Hospital, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Changwon, KR. 7. Department of Internal Medicine IV, Nephrology and Hypertension, Medical University Innsbruck, Innsbruck, AT. 8. The Cambridge Centre for Sport and Exercise Sciences, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, GB. 9. Parc Sanitari Sant Joan de Déu/CIBERSAM, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, ES. 10. ICREA, Pg, Lluis Companys 23, Barcelona, ES. 11. Faculty of Medicine, University of Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, Paris, FR. 12. Department of Global Health and Population, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, US. 13. Urology Institute, University Hospitals, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, US. 14. Department of Gerontology Health and Welfare, Pai Chai University, 155-40, Baejae-ro, Seo-gu, Daejeon, KR.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: The use of social big data is an important emerging concern in the public health. Internet search volume is a useful data that can sensitively detect trends of public's attention in a situation of a pandemic outbreak. OBJECTIVE: Our study aimed to identify the interest and correlation between the proliferation of coronavirus disease 2019(COVID-19), interest in immunity and products that have been discussed to confer an enhancement of immunity, while suggesting the measures of intervention to be undertaken from a health and medical point of view. METHODS: To assess the level of public interest in infectious disease during the initial days of the outbreak of COVID-19, we extracted Google search data from the past year based on the date of 15th of March 2020, which is approximately two months after the COVID-19 outbreak. In order to determine whether the public became interested in the immune system, we selected 'coronavirus', 'immune', 'vitamin' as our final search term. RESULTS: The increase in cumulative confirmed cases of coronavirus after January 20 had a strong positive correlation with search volumes for the terms 'coronavirus' (R = 0.786, P < .0001), 'immune' (R = 0.745, P < .0001) and 'vitamin' (R = 0.778, P < .0001), and the variables were all mutually statistically significant. Moreover, these correlations were confirmed on a country-basis when we restricted analyses to the US, the UK, Italy, and Korea. Our findings revealed that increases in search volumes for 'coronavirus' and 'immune' preceded the actual occurrences of confirmed cases. CONCLUSIONS: Our study implicates that during the initial phase of the COVID-19 crisis, the public's desire and actions to strengthen their own immune systems were enhanced. Further, in the early stage of a pandemic there is a high potential of social media to inform the public about potentially helpful measures to prevent the spread of an infectious disease and provide relevant information about immunity and thereby increase the knowledge.
BACKGROUND: The use of social big data is an important emerging concern in the public health. Internet search volume is a useful data that can sensitively detect trends of public's attention in a situation of a pandemic outbreak. OBJECTIVE: Our study aimed to identify the interest and correlation between the proliferation of coronavirus disease 2019(COVID-19), interest in immunity and products that have been discussed to confer an enhancement of immunity, while suggesting the measures of intervention to be undertaken from a health and medical point of view. METHODS: To assess the level of public interest in infectious disease during the initial days of the outbreak of COVID-19, we extracted Google search data from the past year based on the date of 15th of March 2020, which is approximately two months after the COVID-19 outbreak. In order to determine whether the public became interested in the immune system, we selected 'coronavirus', 'immune', 'vitamin' as our final search term. RESULTS: The increase in cumulative confirmed cases of coronavirus after January 20 had a strong positive correlation with search volumes for the terms 'coronavirus' (R = 0.786, P < .0001), 'immune' (R = 0.745, P < .0001) and 'vitamin' (R = 0.778, P < .0001), and the variables were all mutually statistically significant. Moreover, these correlations were confirmed on a country-basis when we restricted analyses to the US, the UK, Italy, and Korea. Our findings revealed that increases in search volumes for 'coronavirus' and 'immune' preceded the actual occurrences of confirmed cases. CONCLUSIONS: Our study implicates that during the initial phase of the COVID-19 crisis, the public's desire and actions to strengthen their own immune systems were enhanced. Further, in the early stage of a pandemic there is a high potential of social media to inform the public about potentially helpful measures to prevent the spread of an infectious disease and provide relevant information about immunity and thereby increase the knowledge.
Authors: Anna Kłak; Jolanta Grygielska; Małgorzata Mańczak; Ewelina Ejchman-Pac; Jakub Owoc; Urszula Religioni; Robert Olszewski Journal: Int J Environ Res Public Health Date: 2022-01-28 Impact factor: 3.390