Evaluating the impact of health awareness events on Google search frequency

The Digital Impact of Neurosurgery Awareness Month: Retrospective Infodemiology Study

BACKGROUND

Neurosurgery Awareness Month (August) was initiated by the American Association of Neurological Surgeons with the aim of bringing neurological conditions to the forefront and educating the public about these conditions. Digital media is an important tool for disseminating information and connecting with influencers, general public, and other stakeholders. Hence, it is crucial to understand the impact of awareness campaigns such as Neurosurgery Awareness Month to optimize resource allocation, quantify the efficiency and reach of these initiatives, and identify areas for improvement.

OBJECTIVE

The purpose of our study was to examine the digital impact of Neurosurgery Awareness Month globally and identify areas for further improvement.

METHODS

We used 4 social media (Twitter) assessment tools (Sprout Social, SocioViz, Sentiment Viz, and Symplur) and Google Trends to extract data using various search queries. Using regression analysis, trends were studied in the total number of tweets posted in August between 2014 and 2022. Two search queries were used in this analysis: one specifically targeting tweets related to Neurosurgery Awareness Month and the other isolating all neurosurgery-related posts. Total impressions and top influencers for #neurosurgery were calculated using Symplur's machine learning algorithm. To study the context of the tweets, we used SocioViz to isolate the top 100 popular hashtags, keywords, and collaborations between influencers. Network analysis was performed to illustrate the interactions and connections within the digital media environment using ForceAtlas2 model. Sentiment analysis was done to study the underlying emotion of the tweets. Google Trends was used to study the global search interest by studying relative search volume data.

RESULTS

A total of 10,007 users were identified as tweeting about neurosurgery during Neurosurgery Awareness Month using the "#neurosurgery" hashtag. These tweets generated over 29.14 million impressions globally. Of the top 10 most influential users, 5 were faculty neurosurgeons at US university hospitals. Other influential users included notable organizations and journals in the field of neurosurgery. The network analysis of the top 100 influencers showed a collaboration rate of 81%. However, only 1.6% of the total neurosurgery tweets were advocating about neurosurgery awareness during Neurosurgery Awareness Month, and only 13 tweets were posted by verified users using the #neurosurgeryawarenessmonth hashtag. The sentiment analysis revealed that the majority of the tweets about Neurosurgery Awareness Month were pleasant with subdued emotion.

CONCLUSIONS

The global digital impact of Neurosurgery Awareness Month is nascent, and support from other international organizations and neurosurgical influencers is needed to yield a significant digital reach. Increasing collaboration and involvement from underrepresented communities may help to increase the global reach. By better understanding the digital impact of Neurosurgery Awareness Month, future health care awareness campaigns can be optimized to increase global awareness of neurosurgery and the challenges facing the field.

Identifying the challenges and opportunities of PCOS awareness month by analysing its global digital impact

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE

Although significant resources are invested each September for PCOS Awareness Month campaign, there are no studies measuring its impact. We evaluated the digital impact of PCOS Awareness Month, common themes and associated topics, top influencers, and global equity of influence during the PCOS Awareness month.

METHODS

In this serial cross-sectional analysis, we studied the outputs from Symplur^® to study the total impressions of #PCOS on Twitter^®. We tracked the hashtags-#PCOS, #PCOSawarenessmonth, #PCOSawareness-and a search query- "#PCOS OR #PCOSawarenessmonth OR #PCOSawareness"-using Sproutsocial^® to study the total number of tweets related to PCOS Awareness Month. Network analysis was done using SocioViz^® to identify common themes and associated topics. Using SymplurRank^® machine learning algorithm, the top 10 #PCOS influencers were identified based on the number of mentions received. Google^® Trends was used to study the web and news search popularity over the last 10 years beyond social media platforms.

RESULTS

An overall upward trend in the digital impact of PCOS awareness was noted since 2017. While the top themes associated with PCOS (insulin resistance, depression, anxiety, menopause, hormones, infertility) remained the same in 2021 and 2022, newer themes emerged in the latter year suggesting the need for ongoing review. News outlets were the most influential organisations during PCOS Awareness Month in both years of study. Seven of the top 10 users were the same in both years. Limited engagement from African, Asian, South American, and non-English speaking European countries was seen on Google Trends analysis.

CONCLUSION

Active involvement from various stakeholders of PCOS Awareness Month has shaped it into an effective strategy to raise awareness with social media playing a crucial role in amplifying the message. Our findings also provide an opportunity to understand the current perceptions and expectations amongst the public, which can influence future healthcare investment and research.

Evaluating the Global Impact of Stroke Awareness Month: A Serial Cross-Sectional Analysis

Introduction: Stroke is the second-leading cause of mortality in the world and ranks fifth in terms of causes of death in the United States. “Time is brain” when it comes to the detection and treatment of a stroke as it can reduce morbidity and disability in the long run. May is recognized as Stroke Awareness Month to involve the concerned stakeholders. The goal of this month is to raise public awareness of the risk factors for stroke and to minimize its occurrence. We, for the first time, evaluated the actual impact of this awareness campaign to formulate evidence-based recommendations to promote stroke awareness.

Methods: The total number of tweets posted in the month of May from 2014 to 2022 were extracted. The search queries used were “stroke awareness month OR stroke month OR #strokemonth OR #strokewarenessmonth” and “stroke OR #stroke”. Social network analysis of the tweets was done to understand the context of posts. Network analysis provides the capacity to estimate complex patterns of relationships and gives insights into useful information about impact, reach, and interactions in an environment. The top 100 related hashtags, influencers, and keywords were extracted. Beyond social media usage, Google Trends web search analysis was done for the search term ‘stroke awareness month’ for interest by region of the last five years to get an overall idea of the internet search trends globally.

Results: Out of the total 989,935 tweets about stroke posted in May 2022, only 1.07% of the tweets were specific to Stroke Awareness Month. The mean and standard deviation of the percentage of targeted action from 2014 to 2022 have been 3.14% and 1.35%, respectively. Forty-five percent of the top users never collaborated with each other. On Google Trends analysis, the event had primary involvement from the United States and the United Kingdom. The event had very limited reach in other continents, especially in Asian and African countries.

Conclusion: Our estimates highlight the limited digital impact of Stroke Awareness Month globally. The use of social media should be promoted, particularly in developing countries, to provide reliable information and generate user involvement on a global scale. Findings from this study can be leveraged to inform future policies for stroke awareness campaigns that improve public and global health.

Recommendations for the ethical conduct of vaccination awareness campaigns by biopharmaceutical companies

Health awareness campaigns educate and inform the public about particular health conditions with the aim of either changing behavior or enhancing uptake of appropriate healthcare, such as vaccination or screening. The campaigns may be run by governments and public health bodies but are also deployed by biopharmaceutical companies. Industry-sponsored disease awareness (DA) campaigns intend to provide information about diseases and their prevention or treatment, without mentioning specific products. In most countries, DA campaigns fall outside of the laws and regulations that apply to promotion of medicines. Currently, guidance for industry is limited and only exists at national level. This article provides an overview of existing guidance on DA campaigns, discusses benefits and risks, and proposes recommendations for industry-sponsored vaccination awareness campaigns.

Grass-roots entrepreneurship complements traditional top-down innovation in lung and breast cancer

The majority of biomedical research is funded by public, governmental, and philanthropic grants. These initiatives often shape the avenues and scope of research across disease areas. However, the prioritization of disease-specific funding is not always reflective of the health and social burden of each disease. We identify a prioritization disparity between lung and breast cancers, whereby lung cancer contributes to a substantially higher socioeconomic cost on society yet receives significantly less funding than breast cancer. Using search engine results and natural language processing (NLP) of Twitter tweets, we show that this disparity correlates with enhanced public awareness and positive sentiment for breast cancer. Interestingly, disease-specific venture activity does not correlate with funding or public opinion. We use outcomes from recent early-stage innovation events focused on lung cancer to highlight the complementary mechanism by which bottom-up “grass-roots” initiatives can identify and tackle under-prioritized conditions.

Using Internet Search Queries to Assess Public Awareness of the Healthy Cities Approach: A Case Study in Shenzhen, China

Cities around the globe are embracing the Healthy Cities approach to address urban health challenges. Public awareness is vital for successfully deploying this approach but is rarely assessed. In this study, we used internet search queries to evaluate the public awareness of the Healthy Cities approach applied in Shenzhen, China. The overall situation at the city level and the intercity variations were both analyzed. Additionally, we explored the factors that might affect the internet search queries of the Healthy Cities approach. Our results showed that the public awareness of the approach in Shenzhen was low. There was a high intercity heterogeneity in terms of interest in the various components of the Healthy Cities approach. However, we did not find a significant effect of the selected demographic, environmental, and health factors on the search queries. Based on our findings, we recommend that the city raise public awareness of healthy cities and take actions tailored to health concerns in different city zones. Our study showed that internet search queries can be a valuable data source for assessing the public awareness of the Healthy Cities approach.

Assessing the Levels of Awareness among European Citizens about the Direct and Indirect Impacts of Plastics on Human Health

There is an urgent need to assess European citizens’ perspective regarding their plastic consumption and to evaluate their awareness of the direct and indirect effect of plastics on human health in order to influence current behavior trends. In this study, the evaluation has been cross-related with scientific facts, with the final aim of detecting the most recommendable paths in increasing human awareness, reducing plastic consumption, and consequently impacting human health. A statistical analysis of quantitative data, gathered from 1000 European citizens via an online survey in the period from May to June 2020, showed that a general awareness about the direct impact of plastic consumption and contamination (waste) on human health is high in Europe. However, only a few participants (from a higher educational group) were aware of the indirect negative effects that oil extraction and industrial production of plastic can have on human health. This finding calls for improved availability of this information to general public. Despite the participants’ positive attitude toward active plastic reduction (61%), plastic consumption on a daily basis is still very high (86%). The most common current actions toward plastic reduction are plastic bag usage, reusage, or replacement with sustainable alternatives (e.g., textile bags) and selecting products with less plastic packaging. The participants showed important criticism toward the information available to the general public about plastics and health. This awareness is important since significant relation has been found between the available information and the participants’ decisions on the actions they might undertake to reduce plastic consumption. The study clearly showed the willingness of the participants to take action, but they also requested to be strongly supported with joint efforts from government, policies, and marketing, defining it as the most successful way toward implementing these changes.

Cardiovascular-related health behaviors and lifestyle during the COVID-19 pandemic: An infodemiology study

Background

Reports have suggested decreasing attention to CVD comorbidities during the COVID-19 pandemic, despite their association with worse virus-related outcomes. Using nowcasting tools, we sought to explore temporal trends in public interest by studying use of online search terms related to CVD comorbidities during the pandemic time period.

Methods

We queried Google Trends for recent (October 2019–October 2020) and seasonal (October 2016–October 2020) trends of search terms pertaining to cardiovascular-related behaviors or clinical care including clinical diagnostic and therapeutic-related terms. Additionally, we acquired data from Google Shopping Insights to explore consumer behavior. Data for search results in the US were compared using mean relative search volumes (RSV), tabulated by month.

Results

Online search interest in the terms “Exercise” and “Cigarettes” changed by +18.0% and −52.5%, respectively, comparing March–April with January–February 2020. Key terms related to CVD-related care, including diagnostic and therapeutic-related terms such as “Statin”, “Lipid profile”, “Low-density lipoprotein”, and “Hemoglobin A1C” declined to a four-year low in late March 2020 but regained pre-pandemic search query frequency by July 2020. Results were supported by Google Shopping analysis; for example, online consumer shopping-related searches for tobacco products reached at an all-year low after May 2020.

Conclusion

We report an increase in search interest for an overall healthier CVD-related lifestyle starting in March 2020, supported by online consumer shopping behavior. However, a months-long trough in public interest for CVD care-related search terms from March–May 2020 suggests a transient but substantial decrease in public focus on cardiovascular-related healthcare engagement. Future research is needed to understand if these mixed signals will persist into 2021 and how they potentially translate into real-world CVD-related event rates.

Exploring Public Awareness of Overwork Prevention With Big Data From Google Trends: Retrospective Analysis

Background

To improve working conditions and prevent illness and deaths related to overwork, the Taiwanese government in 2015, 2016, and 2018 amended regulations regarding working time, overtime, shifts, and rest days. Such policy changes may lead to a rising public awareness of overwork-related issues, which may in turn reinforce policy development.

Objective

This study aimed to investigate to what extent public awareness of overwork-related issues correlated with policy changes.

Methods

Policies, laws, and regulations promulgated or amended in Taiwan between January 2004 and November 2019 were identified. We defined 3 working conditions (overwork, long working hours, and high job stress) related to overwork prevention, generated a keyword for each condition, and extracted the search volumes for each keyword on the Google search engine as proxy indicators of public awareness. We then calculated the monthly percentage change in the search volumes using the Joinpoint Regression Program.

Results

Apparent peaks in search volumes were observed immediately after policy changes. Especially, policy changes in 2010 were followed by a remarkable peak in search volumes for both overwork and working hours, with the search volumes for overwork increased by 29% per month from June 2010 to March 2011. This increase was preceded by the implementation of new overwork recognition guidelines and media reports of several suspected overwork-related events. The search volumes for working hours also steadily increased, by 2% per month in September 2013 and afterward, reaching a peak in January 2017. The peak was likely due to the amendment to the Labor Standards Act, which called for “1 fixed and 1 flexible day off per week,” in 2016. The search volumes for job stress significantly increased (P=.026) but only by 0.4% per month since March 2013.

Conclusions

Over the past 15 years, Taiwanese authorities have revised and implemented several policies to prevent overwork-related health problems. Our study suggests a relationship between the implementation of policies that clearly defined the criteria for overwork and working hours and the rising public awareness of the importance of overwork prevention and shorter working hours.

Google Medical Update: Why Is the Search Engine Decreasing Visibility of Health and Medical Information Websites?

The Google search engine answers many health and medical information queries every day. People have become used to searching for this type of information. This paper presents a study which examined the visibility of health and medical information websites. The purpose of this study was to find out why Google is decreasing the visibility of such websites and how to measure this decrease. Since August 2018, Google has been more rigorously rating these websites, since they can potentially impact people’s health. The method of the study was to collect data about the visibility of health and medical information websites in sequential time snapshots. Visibility consists of combined data of unique keywords, positions, and URL results. The sample under study was made up of 21 websites selected from 10 European countries. The findings reveal that in sequential time snapshots, search visibility decreased. The decrease was not dependent on the country or the language. The main reason why Google is decreasing the visibility of such websites is that they do not meet high ranking criteria.