Google trends debate3/28/2023 ![]() ![]() With the spread of SARS-CoV-2, people faced extreme uncertainty due to evolving information, calls for behavior change, and economic shocks. Over a period of a few months, the COVID-19 pandemic dramatically and rapidly changed the lives of most Americans. We suggest strategic shifts for policy makers to improve the precision and effectiveness of non-pharmaceutical interventions and recommend the development of a real-time dashboard as a decision-making tool. Our research holds important lessons for both state and federal governments in a fast-evolving situation that requires a finger on the pulse of public sentiment. Finally, concerns varied across the country some search terms were more popular in some regions than in others.Ĭonclusions: COVID-19 is unlikely to be the last pandemic faced by the United States. The increase in searches for information on COVID-19 care was paralleled by a decrease in searches related to other health behaviors, such as urgent care, doctor’s appointments, health insurance, Medicare, and Medicaid. The popularity of searches for unemployment claims predicted the actual spike in weekly claims. Changes in information seeking often occurred well in advance of action by the federal government. Results: The data showed high demand for information, corresponding with increasing searches for coronavirus linked to news sources regardless of the ideological leaning of the news source. ![]() Methods used include trend analysis of US search data geographic analyses of the differences in search popularity across US states from March 1 to Apand principal component analysis to extract search patterns across states. We generated data sets at the national level (covering January 1, 2016, to April 15, 2020) and state level (covering January 1 to April 15, 2020). Methods: We analyzed searches on 38 terms related to COVID-19, falling into six themes: social and travel care seeking government programs health programs news and influence and outlook and concerns. We asked four questions: (1) How has information seeking changed over time? (2) How does information seeking vary between regions and states? (3) Do states have particular and distinct patterns in information seeking? (4) Do search data correlate with-or precede-real-life events? Objective: We aimed to use Google Trends to provide both insights into and potential indicators of important changes in information-seeking patterns during pandemics such as COVID-19. This paper explores Google Trends as a proxy for what people are thinking, needing, and planning in real time across the United States. Google Trends is an alternative approach that has been used in the past to analyze health behaviors however, most existing studies on COVID-19 using these data examine a single issue or a limited geographic area. The analysis of big data sets (such as electronic patient records and surveillance systems) is very complex. Traditional surveys in the area of public health can be expensive and time-consuming, and they can rapidly become outdated. JMIR Bioinformatics and Biotechnology 31 articlesĮmail: The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted people’s lives at unprecedented speed and scale, including how they eat and work, what they are concerned about, how much they move, and how much they can earn.JMIR Biomedical Engineering 66 articles.Journal of Participatory Medicine 76 articles.JMIR Perioperative Medicine 86 articles.JMIR Rehabilitation and Assistive Technologies 189 articles.JMIR Pediatrics and Parenting 266 articles.Interactive Journal of Medical Research 286 articles.JMIR Public Health and Surveillance 1071 articles.Journal of Medical Internet Research 7222 articles. ![]()
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