ArticleJournal of medical Internet research2005
Cancer Internet search activity on a major search engine, United States 2001-2003.
Article in Journal of medical Internet research, 2005. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 50 papers.
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Who cites it
50 citing papers in PubMed.
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- Studying health-related internet and mobile device use using web logs and smartphone records.PloS one · 2020Article
- Lymelight: forecasting Lyme disease risk using web search data.NPJ digital medicine · 2020Article
- Health-related Google searches performed by parents of pediatric oncology patients.Pediatric blood & cancer · 2019Article
- Online Information-Seeking About Potential Breast Cancer Symptoms: Capturing Online Behavior With an Internet Browsing Tracking Tool.Journal of medical Internet research · 2019Article
- The potential use of social media and other internet-related data and communications for child maltreatment surveillance and epidemiological research: Scoping review and recommendations.Child abuse & neglect · 2018Article
- Social Media as a Catalyst for Policy Action and Social Change for Health and Well-Being: Viewpoint.Journal of medical Internet research · 2018Article
- Google as a cancer control tool in Queensland.BMC cancer · 2017Article
- Communicating Uncertain Science to the Public: How Amount and Source of Uncertainty Impact Fatalism, Backlash, and Overload.Risk analysis : an official publication of the Society for Risk Analysis · 2017Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundTo locate online health information, Internet users typically use a search engine, such as Yahoo! or Google. We studied Yahoo! search activity related to the 23 most common cancers in the United States.
objectiveThe objective was to test three potential correlates of Yahoo! cancer search activity--estimated cancer incidence, estimated cancer mortality, and the volume of cancer news coverage--and to study the periodicity of and peaks in Yahoo! cancer search activity.
methodsYahoo! cancer search activity was obtained from a proprietary database called the Yahoo! Buzz Index. The American Cancer Society's estimates of cancer incidence and mortality were used. News reports associated with specific cancer types were identified using the LexisNexis "US News" database, which includes more than 400 national and regional newspapers and a variety of newswire services.
resultsThe Yahoo! search activity associated with specific cancers correlated with their estimated incidence (Spearman rank correlation, rho = 0.50, P = .015), estimated mortality (rho = 0.66, P = .001), and volume of related news coverage (rho = 0.88, P < .001). Yahoo! cancer search activity tended to be higher on weekdays and during national cancer awareness months but lower during summer months; cancer news coverage also tended to follow these trends. Sharp increases in Yahoo! search activity scores from one day to the next appeared to be associated with increases in relevant news coverage.
conclusionsMedia coverage appears to play a powerful role in prompting online searches for cancer information. Internet search activity offers an innovative tool for passive surveillance of health information-seeking behavior.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.