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Burden of Neurological Diseases in the Philippines as Revealed by Web Searches: An Infodemiological Study
Due to the real-time acquisition of big data from the Internet, analysis of Google queries is now recognized as a valuable tool to explore and predict human behavior and interests. It was suggested that online data can be correlated with actual health data. Although the data are not structured nor s...
Autores principales: | , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
MDPI
2022
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9778773/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36554618 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192416736 |
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author | Alonto, Anisah Hayaminnah D. Apor, Almira Doreen Abigail O. Jamora, Roland Dominic G. |
author_facet | Alonto, Anisah Hayaminnah D. Apor, Almira Doreen Abigail O. Jamora, Roland Dominic G. |
author_sort | Alonto, Anisah Hayaminnah D. |
collection | PubMed |
description | Due to the real-time acquisition of big data from the Internet, analysis of Google queries is now recognized as a valuable tool to explore and predict human behavior and interests. It was suggested that online data can be correlated with actual health data. Although the data are not structured nor systematic, the huge data from search engines can easily identify trends concerning diseases and other health concepts from a population perspective. Moreover, Internet data with the use of web search advertising nowadays may not only reveal the interest of the general population but also of the healthcare industry as reflected by the bid prices in search terms for medications. We aimed to compare the interests of the general population using monthly search volumes from Google and the healthcare industry using bid prices in web searches. Data used in this study were obtained from the Google Ads Application Programming Interface (API). This study evaluated the population’s interest in neurological disorders by using search volumes related to neurology, either disease diagnosis or medications. Bid values generated in API were used as a proxy for the interests of the healthcare industry. Spearman’s rank-order correlation was performed between search volumes and bid prices to determine significance. Among the neurologic diseases listed, the most searched were attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, migraine, and Alzheimer’s disease. The most commonly searched drugs were oral antihypertensives (amlodipine, losartan, carvedilol), lipid-lowering agents (atorvastatin, simvastatin, rosuvastatin), and antiplatelets (acetylsalicylic acid, clopidogrel). The other most searched drugs were analgesics such as acetaminophen, tramadol, diclofenac, and morphine. The correlational analysis did not reveal a statistically significant correlation between search volume and bid price for both neurologic diseases and medications. Web searches may reflect the interest of the general population and the healthcare industry. However, there was disagreement in the search interests of the general population and the scientific community, including the pharmaceutical industry. Further studies are necessary in order to align these interests for the common benefit of all stakeholders. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-9778773 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2022 |
publisher | MDPI |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-97787732022-12-23 Burden of Neurological Diseases in the Philippines as Revealed by Web Searches: An Infodemiological Study Alonto, Anisah Hayaminnah D. Apor, Almira Doreen Abigail O. Jamora, Roland Dominic G. Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Due to the real-time acquisition of big data from the Internet, analysis of Google queries is now recognized as a valuable tool to explore and predict human behavior and interests. It was suggested that online data can be correlated with actual health data. Although the data are not structured nor systematic, the huge data from search engines can easily identify trends concerning diseases and other health concepts from a population perspective. Moreover, Internet data with the use of web search advertising nowadays may not only reveal the interest of the general population but also of the healthcare industry as reflected by the bid prices in search terms for medications. We aimed to compare the interests of the general population using monthly search volumes from Google and the healthcare industry using bid prices in web searches. Data used in this study were obtained from the Google Ads Application Programming Interface (API). This study evaluated the population’s interest in neurological disorders by using search volumes related to neurology, either disease diagnosis or medications. Bid values generated in API were used as a proxy for the interests of the healthcare industry. Spearman’s rank-order correlation was performed between search volumes and bid prices to determine significance. Among the neurologic diseases listed, the most searched were attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, migraine, and Alzheimer’s disease. The most commonly searched drugs were oral antihypertensives (amlodipine, losartan, carvedilol), lipid-lowering agents (atorvastatin, simvastatin, rosuvastatin), and antiplatelets (acetylsalicylic acid, clopidogrel). The other most searched drugs were analgesics such as acetaminophen, tramadol, diclofenac, and morphine. The correlational analysis did not reveal a statistically significant correlation between search volume and bid price for both neurologic diseases and medications. Web searches may reflect the interest of the general population and the healthcare industry. However, there was disagreement in the search interests of the general population and the scientific community, including the pharmaceutical industry. Further studies are necessary in order to align these interests for the common benefit of all stakeholders. MDPI 2022-12-13 /pmc/articles/PMC9778773/ /pubmed/36554618 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192416736 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
spellingShingle | Article Alonto, Anisah Hayaminnah D. Apor, Almira Doreen Abigail O. Jamora, Roland Dominic G. Burden of Neurological Diseases in the Philippines as Revealed by Web Searches: An Infodemiological Study |
title | Burden of Neurological Diseases in the Philippines as Revealed by Web Searches: An Infodemiological Study |
title_full | Burden of Neurological Diseases in the Philippines as Revealed by Web Searches: An Infodemiological Study |
title_fullStr | Burden of Neurological Diseases in the Philippines as Revealed by Web Searches: An Infodemiological Study |
title_full_unstemmed | Burden of Neurological Diseases in the Philippines as Revealed by Web Searches: An Infodemiological Study |
title_short | Burden of Neurological Diseases in the Philippines as Revealed by Web Searches: An Infodemiological Study |
title_sort | burden of neurological diseases in the philippines as revealed by web searches: an infodemiological study |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9778773/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36554618 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192416736 |
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