Italian Wikipedia and epilepsy: An infodemiological study of online information-seeking behavior

Determining the health-seeking behaviors of people with epilepsy

PURPOSE

Health-seeking behaviors of individuals who have epilepsy might affect the treatment of the disease, recovery process, and self-care activities. The present study was conducted to determine the health-seeking behaviors of individuals who have epilepsy.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The present study was conducted in a descriptive and cross-sectional design with 190 epilepsy patients who applied to the Neurology Clinic in the north and east of Turkey between April 2023 and January 2024. The data of the study were collected by using the Introductory Data Form, Health-Seeking Behavior Scale (HSBS). The IBM SPSS 27 software, variance analysis, Tamhane T2, ANOVA Test, Tukey Test, and Multiple Regression Analysis were used to evaluate the study data.

RESULTS

The mean score of the online health-seeking behavior sub-dimension of the Health-Seeking Behavior Scale of the individuals who had epilepsy was found to be 13.32 ± 5.40, the mean score of the professional health-seeking behavior sub-dimension was 9.92 ± 2.75, and the mean score of the traditional health-seeking behavior sub-dimension was 8.46 ± 3.29. No significant differences were detected between individuals' sex, seizure types, and health-seeking behaviors, and a significant difference was detected between marital status, educational status, place of residence, occupation, income level, seizure frequency, and medication use status and health-seeking behaviors (p < 0.05). According to the multiple linear regression analysis that was used to examine the effects of sociodemographic characteristics of individuals with epilepsy on health seeking behavior scale scores, it was found that sociodemographic characteristics such as educational status, place of residence, marital status, and age significantly affected online, professional, and traditional health seeking behavior scores.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, it was found in the present study that the online health-seeking behavior of the individuals who had epilepsy was higher than other health-seeking behaviors. The health-seeking behaviors of patients were affected by sociodemographic characteristics (e.g., marital status, educational status, place of residence, occupation, income level, seizure frequency, and medication use). It is of great importance to conduct larger future studies on individuals who have epilepsy and are seeking traditional treatment for epileptic seizures because the sources from which health information is obtained might affect the diagnosis, treatment, and recovery processes.

Patterns of Google search behavior for epilepsy and seizures in the Philippines: An infodemiological study

BACKGROUND

The internet has been established as a rich source of health information that is well utilized by the public. Online health information-seeking behavior may reflect public awareness in particular health-related topics, including epilepsy and seizures.

OBJECTIVE

This study aimed to describe online search behavior for epilepsy and seizures in the Philippines through the examination of trends of Philippine-based Google search queries for epilepsy and seizure-related terms.

METHODS

The search volume indices (SVIs) for the keywords "epilepsy (disorder)" and "seizure (disease)" based on Philippine-based Google searches from January 2004 to July 2021 were generated using Google Trends. Descriptive analysis of search volume patterns, including related topics and queries, was performed.

RESULTS

There was a recent relative increase in Philippine-based searches related to the term "seizure" with a concurrent relative decline in searches related to the term "epilepsy" over time. The Philippines had the fifth-highest SVI for "seizure" based on worldwide trends. Most searches centered on the definition, symptomatology, etiologies, classification, and treatment of seizures and epilepsy. Queries containing seizure-related terms rose in volume by more than 5000% during the seventeen-year period. Search volume tended to peak during the National Epilepsy Awareness Week in September but slumped during holiday months.

CONCLUSIONS

Online search behavior in the Philippines for seizure-related terms appears to be on the rise and may reflect increasing public awareness in epilepsy. Factors including fears surrounding epileptic seizures, the stigma surrounding the term "epilepsy", and seasonal events including a regularly held epilepsy awareness week may influence online search behavior.

Public Interest in Neurological Diseases on Wikipedia during Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Pandemic

Infodemiology is a research discipline that investigates parameters of information distribution in order to support public health and public policy. Wikipedia, a free online encyclopedia, is commonly used as a source of information for infodemiological studies. Using Pageviews analysis, we descriptively assessed the total monthly number of views of the Wikipedia articles in English describing main neurological diseases in the period from January 2018 to July 2020. Our results show a general trend of a decrease in interest in neurological disease-related pages throughout years and especially during the burst of interest towards coronavirus. The monitoring of infodemiological indicators shall be prioritized to reshape global campaigns and tailored advocacy programs.

Online behavior of people visiting a scientific website on epilepsy

We investigated the online behavior of Internet users consulting the website of the Italian Chapter of the International League Against Epilepsy (Lega Italiana Contro l'Epilessia [LICE]). We obtained the visualization statistics of the LICE website using AWStats (https://awstats.sourceforge.io/) and Google Trends (https://trends.google.com/trends/), and compared the statistics of years 2010, 2014, and 2017. The following variables were analyzed: number of unique visitors and visits, visit duration, the day of week and rush hours, most downloaded documents, most viewed pages, keyphrases and keywords used for online searches, origins of searches, and geographic trends of Google searches related to the LICE. The total numbers of unique visitors, visits and page views remained quite stable over time. Most visits (70 to 76.7%) lasted less than 30 s. The most frequent keyphrases and keywords used for online searches were related to clinical guidelines and driving license. Among the most frequently downloaded documents were general guides on epilepsy. The pages with the list of epilepsy centers endorsed by the LICE and those with the list of LICE guidelines were among those most frequently viewed, together with educational videos. Most users directly accessed the website without being referred from external links. No information on geographic origin of Google searches was available. The visualization statistics suggested two distinct populations of visitors. The first one is likely represented by physicians who seek specialist information on diagnosis and management of epilepsy, including guidelines. The second population is represented by lay people who seek accessible and easily comprehensible information to better understand epilepsy and know which centers are best for its management.

Pharmacy students can improve access to quality medicines information by editing Wikipedia articles

BACKGROUND

Pharmacy training programs commonly ask students to develop or edit drug monographs that summarize key information about new medicines as an academic exercise. We sought to expand on this traditional approach by having students improve actual medicines information pages posted on Wikipedia.

METHODS

We placed students (n = 119) in a required core pharmacy course into groups of four and assigned each group a specific medicines page on Wikipedia to edit. Assigned pages had high hit rates, suggesting that the topics were of interest to the wider public, but were of low quality, suggesting that the topics would benefit from improvement efforts. We provided course trainings about editing Wikipedia. We evaluated the assignment by surveying student knowledge and attitudes and reviewing the edits on Wikipedia.

RESULTS

Completing the course trainings increased student knowledge of Wikipedia editing practices. At the end of the assignment, students had a more nuanced understanding of Wikipedia as a resource. Student edits improved substantially the quality of the articles edited, their edits were retained for at least 30 days after course completion, and the average number page views of their edited articles increased.

CONCLUSIONS

Our results suggest that engaging pharmacy students in a Wikipedia editing assignment is a feasible alternative to writing drug monographs as a classroom assignment. Both tasks provide opportunities for students to demonstrate their skills at researching and explaining drug information but only one serves to improve wider access to quality medicines information. Wikipedia editing assignments are feasible for large groups of pharmacy students and effective in improving publicly available information on one of the most heavily accessed websites globally.