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Hangover-Related Internet Searches Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic in England: Observational Study

BACKGROUND: It is unclear whether heavy alcohol use and associated hangover symptoms changed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to a lack of available accurate and nonretrospective self-reported data, it is difficult to directly assess hangover symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic. OBJECTIVE...

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Autores principales: Robinson, Eric, Jones, Andrew
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: JMIR Publications 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9994424/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36827489
http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/40518
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author Robinson, Eric
Jones, Andrew
author_facet Robinson, Eric
Jones, Andrew
author_sort Robinson, Eric
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: It is unclear whether heavy alcohol use and associated hangover symptoms changed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to a lack of available accurate and nonretrospective self-reported data, it is difficult to directly assess hangover symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to examine whether alcohol-induced hangover-related internet searches (eg, “how to cure a hangover?”) increased, decreased, or remained the same in England before versus during the COVID-19 pandemic (2020-2021) and during periods of national lockdown. Secondary aims were to examine if hangover-related internet searches in England differed compared to a country that did not impose similar COVID-19 lockdown restrictions. METHODS: Using historical data from Google Trends for England, we compared the relative search volume (RSV) of hangover-related searches in the years before (2016-2019) versus during the COVID-19 pandemic (2020-2021), as well as in periods of national lockdown versus the same periods in 2016-2019. We also compared the RSV of hangover-related searches during the same time frames in a European country that did not introduce national COVID-19 lockdowns at the beginning of the pandemic (Sweden). Hangover-related search terms were identified through consultation with a panel of alcohol researchers and a sample from the general public. Statistical analyses were preregistered prior to data collection. RESULTS: There was no overall significant difference in the RSV of hangover-related terms in England during 2016-2019 versus 2020-2021 (P=.10; robust d=0.02, 95% CI 0.00-0.03). However, during national lockdowns, searches for hangover-related terms were lower, particularly during the first national lockdown in England (P<.001; d=.19, 95% CI 0.16-0.24; a 44% relative decrease). In a comparison country that did not introduce a national lockdown in the early stages of the pandemic (Sweden), there was no significant decrease in hangover-related searches during the same time period (P=.06). However, across both England and Sweden, during later periods of COVID-19 restrictions in 2020 and 2021, the RSV of hangover-related terms was lower than that in the same periods during 2016-2019. Exploratory analyses revealed that national monthly variation in alcohol sales both before and during the COVID-19 pandemic were positively correlated with the frequency of hangover-related searches, suggesting that changes in hangover-related searches may act as a proxy for changes in alcohol consumption. CONCLUSIONS: Hangover-related internet searches did not differ before versus during the COVID-19 pandemic in England but did reduce during periods of national lockdown. Further research is required to confirm how changes in hangover-related search volume relate to heavy episodic alcohol use. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Open Science Framework 2Y86E; https://osf.io/2Y86E
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spelling pubmed-99944242023-03-09 Hangover-Related Internet Searches Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic in England: Observational Study Robinson, Eric Jones, Andrew JMIR Form Res Original Paper BACKGROUND: It is unclear whether heavy alcohol use and associated hangover symptoms changed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to a lack of available accurate and nonretrospective self-reported data, it is difficult to directly assess hangover symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to examine whether alcohol-induced hangover-related internet searches (eg, “how to cure a hangover?”) increased, decreased, or remained the same in England before versus during the COVID-19 pandemic (2020-2021) and during periods of national lockdown. Secondary aims were to examine if hangover-related internet searches in England differed compared to a country that did not impose similar COVID-19 lockdown restrictions. METHODS: Using historical data from Google Trends for England, we compared the relative search volume (RSV) of hangover-related searches in the years before (2016-2019) versus during the COVID-19 pandemic (2020-2021), as well as in periods of national lockdown versus the same periods in 2016-2019. We also compared the RSV of hangover-related searches during the same time frames in a European country that did not introduce national COVID-19 lockdowns at the beginning of the pandemic (Sweden). Hangover-related search terms were identified through consultation with a panel of alcohol researchers and a sample from the general public. Statistical analyses were preregistered prior to data collection. RESULTS: There was no overall significant difference in the RSV of hangover-related terms in England during 2016-2019 versus 2020-2021 (P=.10; robust d=0.02, 95% CI 0.00-0.03). However, during national lockdowns, searches for hangover-related terms were lower, particularly during the first national lockdown in England (P<.001; d=.19, 95% CI 0.16-0.24; a 44% relative decrease). In a comparison country that did not introduce a national lockdown in the early stages of the pandemic (Sweden), there was no significant decrease in hangover-related searches during the same time period (P=.06). However, across both England and Sweden, during later periods of COVID-19 restrictions in 2020 and 2021, the RSV of hangover-related terms was lower than that in the same periods during 2016-2019. Exploratory analyses revealed that national monthly variation in alcohol sales both before and during the COVID-19 pandemic were positively correlated with the frequency of hangover-related searches, suggesting that changes in hangover-related searches may act as a proxy for changes in alcohol consumption. CONCLUSIONS: Hangover-related internet searches did not differ before versus during the COVID-19 pandemic in England but did reduce during periods of national lockdown. Further research is required to confirm how changes in hangover-related search volume relate to heavy episodic alcohol use. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Open Science Framework 2Y86E; https://osf.io/2Y86E JMIR Publications 2023-03-03 /pmc/articles/PMC9994424/ /pubmed/36827489 http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/40518 Text en ©Eric Robinson, Andrew Jones. Originally published in JMIR Formative Research (https://formative.jmir.org), 03.03.2023. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, first published in JMIR Formative Research, is properly cited. The complete bibliographic information, a link to the original publication on https://formative.jmir.org, as well as this copyright and license information must be included.
spellingShingle Original Paper
Robinson, Eric
Jones, Andrew
Hangover-Related Internet Searches Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic in England: Observational Study
title Hangover-Related Internet Searches Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic in England: Observational Study
title_full Hangover-Related Internet Searches Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic in England: Observational Study
title_fullStr Hangover-Related Internet Searches Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic in England: Observational Study
title_full_unstemmed Hangover-Related Internet Searches Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic in England: Observational Study
title_short Hangover-Related Internet Searches Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic in England: Observational Study
title_sort hangover-related internet searches before and during the covid-19 pandemic in england: observational study
topic Original Paper
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9994424/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36827489
http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/40518
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