Abstract
USING GOOGLE TRENDS AS A NOVEL SURVEILLANCE TOOL TO EXAMINE THE EPIDEMIOLOGY OF HEART FAILURE
Journal of the American College of Cardiology, Vol.83(13 Suppl), pp.600-600
04/02/2024
DOI: 10.1016/S0735-1097(24)02590-7
Abstract
Background
In recent years, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, digital epidemiology has become vital for tracking disease trends in real-time using search engine data. This research aims to explore how digital epidemiology can serve as a tool for heart failure surveillance and public health promotion.
Methods
We utilized Google Trends to analyze the search volume index (SVI) for “heart failure” between January 2017 and January 2023. We classified the time period between January 2017-February 2020 as pre-COVID lockdown and September 2020-January 2023 as post-COVID. Using Google Trends, we also identified the top 5 and bottom 5 states where “heart failure” related searches were most and least popular, respectively. Mean SVIs per month were calculated to examine seasonal patterns for heart failure searches.
Results
The mean SVI for the pre-COVID and post-COVID time periods were 69 and 78, respectively (p<0.0001). The top 5 and bottom 5 states with the highest and lowest SVIs are shown on Table 1. When looking at seasonality, the winter months (January and February) appeared to have the highest SVIs.
Conclusion
There was a significant increase in the mean SVI for heart failure-related searches during the post-COVID lockdown period, compared to the pre-COVID period. Our data corresponds to actual heart disease mortality, indicating that search engine data can be used as a proxy for tracking heart disease incidence and prevalence and improve our understanding of heart failure at population health level.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- USING GOOGLE TRENDS AS A NOVEL SURVEILLANCE TOOL TO EXAMINE THE EPIDEMIOLOGY OF HEART FAILURE
- Creators
- Mubariz Ahmed Hassan - Howard University HospitalNiyati Grewal - Howard University HospitalMuhammad Mohsin Munawar - Howard University HospitalUrooj Fatima - Howard University HospitalPrafulla P. Mehrotra - Howard University Hospital
- Resource Type
- Abstract
- Publication Details
- Journal of the American College of Cardiology, Vol.83(13 Suppl), pp.600-600
- DOI
- 10.1016/S0735-1097(24)02590-7
- ISSN
- 0735-1097
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 04/02/2024
- Academic Unit
- Internal Medicine
- Record Identifier
- 9984920932502771
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