ArticleThe International journal on drug policy2021
Can google trends search inform us about the population response and public health impact of abrupt change in alcohol policy? A case study from India during the covid-19 pandemic.
Article in The International journal on drug policy, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers.
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15 citing papers in PubMed.
- Past-month alcohol use in relation to the COVID-19 lockdown in 13 Indian states and union territories: gender, socioeconomic status, and state alcohol policy differences.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Monitoring pregabalin use through online interest: A trend analysis using google search and consumption data.Indian journal of psychiatry · 2025Article
- Google search interests and new cases of COVID-19 in Bangladesh: a vector autoregression analysis for disease surveillance.BMC research notes · 2025Article
- Effects of direct-to-consumer alcohol home delivery policies on alcohol-related online searches in the United States from 2019 to 2023: A Google Trends study.Preventive medicine reports · 2025Article
- Alcohol purchases through online stores and mobile applications in the late phase of the COVID-19 pandemic in Poland.Nordisk alkohol- & narkotikatidskrift : NAT · 2024Article
- Alcohol use disorder research in India: An update.Indian journal of psychiatry · 2024Review
- Comprehensive review of the national surveys that assess E-cigarette use domains among youth and adults in the United States.Lancet regional health. Americas · 2023Review
- Internet search patterns for psychoactive substance use prevention and treatment in Mexico: A cross-sectional study.Journal of Taibah University Medical Sciences · 2023Article
- Hangover-Related Internet Searches Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic in England: Observational Study.JMIR formative research · 2023Article
- Impact of the Food and Drug Administration enforcement policy on flavored e-cigarettes on the online popularity of disposable e-cigarettes: analyses of Google search query data.BMC public health · 2022Article
- Changes in retrospectively recalled alcohol use pre, during and post alcohol sales prohibition during COVID pandemic in Botswana.The International journal on drug policy · 2022Article
- Effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown on alcohol use disorders and complications.Current opinion in psychiatry · 2021Review
- Association Between State Indoor Tanning Legislation and Google Search Trends Data in the United States From 2006 to 2019: Time-Series Analysis.JMIR dermatology · 2021Article
- The therapeutic relationships, empathy, and satisfaction in teleconsultation for substance use disorders: Better or worse than in-person consultation?Indian journal of psychiatryArticle
- Impact of COVID-19 lockdown on substance availability, accessibility, pricing, and quality: A multicenter study from India.Indian journal of psychiatryArticle
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundSudden alcohol prohibition in India during the COVID-19 pandemic presented an opportunity to test whether Google Trends data could indicate population responses and the public health impact of alcohol policy. We hypothesized, following prohibition: there would be a significant change in the relative search volumes (RSV) of alcohol-related queries; that temporal analysis of the trends would reflect a public response to policy changes; and that geospatial analysis of RSV would correlate with the prevalence of alcohol use.
methodsThree different search periods were used to test the hypotheses. The search inputs were based on potential public response to alcohol prohibition, as evidenced by the literature, newspaper articles, and consensus. We used RSV as the unit of analysis. Mean RSV of search queries, pre-post implementation of prohibition, were compared. Smoothing of scatter plots examined the temporal association of trends with policy measures. Multiple linear regression tested the relationship of state-wise RSV and alcohol use prevalence.
resultsPost-implementation of prohibition, a significant increase in the RSV was observed for searches related to alcohol withdrawal (p<0.001), how to extract alcohol from sanitizer (p = 0.002), alcohol home delivery online (p<0.001), alcohol home delivery (p<0.001), and sleeping pills (p = 0.006). The trends suggested a decrease in general interest in alcohol but increased demand, and a possible connection with changes in policy measures. State-level RSV and alcohol use prevalence did not reveal a significant relationship.
conclusionGoogle trend is a potential source of rapid feedback to policymakers about population responses to an abrupt change in alcohol policies.
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