Learning about cardiac arrest from 'Dr. Google': a pre- and peri-pandemic infodemiology study in Nigeria

INTRODUCTION: the coronavirus pandemic and associated lockdowns restricted movement with non-essential hospital trips discouraged to prevent spread of the virus. Disruption of medical services can lead to increased seeking of medical advice and symptom management online. With COVID-19 known to worsen existing cardiovascular disease or precipitate a new one, we sought to explore online search trends of the Nigerian public regarding cardiac events before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: using Google Trends™, relative search volume for the terms 'cardiac arrest', 'heart attack', and 'heart arrest' were analyzed for the periods 27(th) February to 30(th) September in 2019 and 2020 respectively. Descriptive statistics, Mann-Whitney U test for relative search volume, search terms comparison in both years and Kendall´s correlation coefficient for examining relationships between time frames and search terms were used. RESULTS: searches for terms 'heart attack' (p<0.001) and 'heart arrest' (p=0.01) were higher in 2020 compared to 2019, with a correlation between searches for 'cardiac arrest' and 'heart arrest' (p<0.001) and between 'heart attack' and 'heart arrest' (p=0.01). There was a strong positive correlation between search for 'heart attack' in 2019 and 2020 (tau b=0.35, p<0.001); and a moderate positive correlation for 'heart arrest' (tau b=0.13, p=0.01). CONCLUSION: increased online activity relating to cardiac arrest was recorded during the early months of the pandemic when compared to the year prior. Notable increases in search activity aligned with the timing of heart-related illnesses and deaths of Nigerian celebrities during the pandemic. Further understanding of health-related online search activity in Nigeria could inform the development of health promotion interventions and support health-related information seeking for cardiovascular diseases.