Is Google Trends a reliable tool for digital epidemiology? Insights from different clinical settings

Gianfranco Cervellin; Ivan Comelli; Giuseppe Lippi

doi:10.1016/j.jegh.2017.06.001

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Volume 7, Issue 3, September 2017, Pages 185 - 189

Is Google Trends a reliable tool for digital epidemiology? Insights from different clinical settings

Authors

Gianfranco Cervellin^a^{, *}^,gianfranco.cervellin@gmail.com gcervellin@ao.pr.it, Ivan Comelli^a, Giuseppe Lippi^b

^aEmergency Department, Academic Hospital of Parma, Parma, Italy

^bSection of Clinical Biochemistry, University of Verona, Verona, Italy

^* Corresponding author.

Corresponding Author

Gianfranco Cervellingianfranco.cervellin@gmail.com gcervellin@ao.pr.it

Received 21 March 2017, Revised 30 May 2017, Accepted 2 June 2017, Available Online 9 June 2017.

DOI: 10.1016/j.jegh.2017.06.001 How to use a DOI?
Keywords: Digital epidemiology; Google Trends; Renal colic; Epistaxis; Mushroom poisoning
Abstract: Internet-derived information has been recently recognized as a valuable tool for epidemiological investigation. Google Trends, a Google Inc. portal, generates data on geographical and temporal patterns according to specified keywords. The aim of this study was to compare the reliability of Google Trends in different clinical settings, for both common diseases with lower media coverage, and for less common diseases attracting major media coverage. We carried out a search in Google Trends using the keywords “renal colic”, “epistaxis”, and “mushroom poisoning”, selected on the basis of available and reliable epidemiological data. Besides this search, we carried out a second search for three clinical conditions (i.e., “meningitis”, “Legionella Pneumophila pneumonia”, and “Ebola fever”), which recently received major focus by the Italian media. In our analysis, no correlation was found between data captured from Google Trends and epidemiology of renal colics, epistaxis and mushroom poisoning. Only when searching for the term “mushroom” alone the Google Trends search generated a seasonal pattern which almost overlaps with the epidemiological profile, but this was probably mostly due to searches for harvesting and cooking rather than to for poisoning. The Google Trends data also failed to reflect the geographical and temporary patterns of disease for meningitis, Legionella Pneumophila pneumonia and Ebola fever.

The results of our study confirm that Google Trends has modest reliability for defining the epidemiology of relatively common diseases with minor media coverage, or relatively rare diseases with higher audience. Overall, Google Trends seems to be more influenced by the media clamor than by true epidemiological burden.
Copyright: © 2017 Ministry of Health, Saudi Arabia. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Open Access: This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

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Journal: Journal of Epidemiology and Global Health
Volume-Issue: 7 - 3
Pages: 185 - 189
Publication Date: 2017/06/09
ISSN (Online): 2210-6014
ISSN (Print): 2210-6006
DOI: 10.1016/j.jegh.2017.06.001 How to use a DOI?
Open Access: This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Cite this article

ris enw bib

TY  - JOUR
AU  - Gianfranco Cervellin
AU  - Ivan Comelli
AU  - Giuseppe Lippi
PY  - 2017
DA  - 2017/06/09
TI  - Is Google Trends a reliable tool for digital epidemiology? Insights from different clinical settings
JO  - Journal of Epidemiology and Global Health
SP  - 185
EP  - 189
VL  - 7
IS  - 3
SN  - 2210-6014
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jegh.2017.06.001
DO  - 10.1016/j.jegh.2017.06.001
ID  - Cervellin2017
ER  -

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