ArticleJournal of medical Internet research2020
Assessment of the Impact of Media Coverage on COVID-19-Related Google Trends Data: Infodemiology Study.
Article in Journal of medical Internet research, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 62 papers.
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Who cites it
62 citing papers in PubMed, 134 citations in OpenAlex.
- Evaluating Turkish society's approaches to hemorrhoid treatment using text mining and sentiment analysis methods.Frontiers in surgery · 2026Article
- Monitoring pregabalin use through online interest: A trend analysis using google search and consumption data.Indian journal of psychiatry · 2025Article
- Wastewater Surveillance for Group APathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Impact of Demographic and Clinical Subgroups in Google Trends Data: Infodemiology Case Study on Asthma Hospitalizations.Journal of medical Internet research · 2025Article
- Spatiotemporal Characteristics and Influential Factors of Electronic Cigarette Web-Based Attention in Mainland China: Time Series Observational Study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2025Observational
- Google Trends and Syphilis.The Journal of clinical and aesthetic dermatology · 2024Article
- Google Trends Analysis of Otologic Symptom Searches Following COVID-19.Iranian journal of otorhinolaryngology · 2024Article
- Views about vaccines and how views changed during the COVID-19 pandemic among a national sample of young gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men.Human vaccines & immunotherapeutics · 2023Article
- Maximum generable interest: A universal standard for Google Trends search queries.Healthcare analytics (New York, N.Y.) · 2023Article
- Developing and validation of COVID-19 media literacy scale among students during the COVID-19 pandemic.BMC psychology · 2023Article
- Google Trends Analysis Reflecting Internet Users' Interest in Selected Terms of Sexual and Reproductive Health in Ukraine.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- COVID-19 Related Early Google Search Behavior and Health Communication in the United States: Panel Data Analysis on Health Measures.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Article
- Article
- Public interest in different types of masks and its relationship with pandemic and policy measures during the COVID-19 pandemic: a study using Google Trends data.Frontiers in public health · 2023Article
- The Relationship between Searches for COVID-19 Vaccines and Dynamics of Vaccinated People in Poland: An Infodemiological Study.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
- Worldwide Evolution of Vaccinable and Nonvaccinable Viral Skin Infections: Google Trends Analysis.JMIR dermatology · 2022Article
- Forecasting and Surveillance of COVID-19 Spread Using Google Trends: Literature Review.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Review
- Pandemic knowledge and regulation effectiveness: Evidence from COVID-19.Journal of comparative economics · 2022Review
- Heightened religiosity proactively and reactively responds to the COVID-19 pandemic across the globe: Novel insights from the parasite-stress theory of sociality and the behavioral immune system theory.International journal of intercultural relations : IJIR · 2022Article
- Article
2 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 3 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe influence of media coverage on web-based searches may hinder the role of Google Trends (GT) in monitoring coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
objectiveThe aim of this study was to assess whether COVID-19-related GT data, particularly those related to ageusia and anosmia, were primarily related to media coverage or to epidemic trends.
methodsWe retrieved GT query data for searches on coronavirus, cough, anosmia, and ageusia and plotted them over a period of 5 years. In addition, we analyzed the trends of those queries for 17 countries throughout the year 2020 with a particular focus on the rises and peaks of the searches. For anosmia and ageusia, we assessed whether the respective GT data correlated with COVID-19 cases and deaths both throughout 2020 and specifically before March 16, 2020 (ie, the date when the media started reporting that these symptoms can be associated with COVID-19).
resultsOver the last five years, peaks for coronavirus searches in GT were only observed during the winter of 2020. Rises and peaks in coronavirus searches appeared at similar times in the 17 different assessed countries irrespective of their epidemic situations. In 15 of these countries, rises in anosmia and ageusia searches occurred in the same week or 1 week after they were identified in the media as symptoms of COVID-19. When data prior to March 16, 2020 were analyzed, anosmia and ageusia GT data were found to have variable correlations with COVID-19 cases and deaths in the different countries.
conclusionsOur results indicate that COVID-19-related GT data are more closely related to media coverage than to epidemic trends.
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Registered trials
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.