1
|
Sumner SA, Alic A, Law RK, Idaikkadar N, Patel N. Estimating national and state-level suicide deaths using a novel online symptom search data source. J Affect Disord 2023; 342:63-68. [PMID: 37704053 PMCID: PMC10958391 DOI: 10.1016/j.jad.2023.08.141] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/04/2023] [Revised: 07/21/2023] [Accepted: 08/11/2023] [Indexed: 09/15/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Suicide mortality data are a critical source of information for understanding suicide-related trends in the United States. However, official suicide mortality data experience significant delays. The Google Symptom Search Dataset (SSD), a novel population-level data source derived from online search behavior, has not been evaluated for its utility in predicting suicide mortality trends. METHODS We identified five mental health related variables (suicidal ideation, self-harm, depression, major depressive disorder, and pain) from the SSD. Daily search trends for these symptoms were utilized to estimate national and state suicide counts in 2020, the most recent year for which data was available, via a linear regression model. We compared the performance of this model to a baseline autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) model and a model including all 422 symptoms (All Symptoms) in the SSD. RESULTS Our Mental Health Model estimated the national number of suicide deaths with an error of -3.86 %, compared to an error of 7.17 % and 28.49 % for the ARIMA baseline and All Symptoms models. At the state level, 70 % (N = 35) of states had a prediction error of <10 % with the Mental Health Model, with accuracy generally favoring larger population states with higher number of suicide deaths. CONCLUSION The Google SSD is a new real-time data source that can be used to make accurate predictions of suicide mortality monthly trends at the national level. Additional research is needed to optimize state level predictions for states with low suicide counts.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Steven A Sumner
- National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA, USA.
| | - Alen Alic
- National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA, USA
| | - Royal K Law
- National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA, USA
| | - Nimi Idaikkadar
- National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA, USA
| | - Nimesh Patel
- Center for Forecasting and Outbreak Analytics, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA, USA
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Dai S, Han L. Influenza surveillance with Baidu index and attention-based long short-term memory model. PLoS One 2023; 18:e0280834. [PMID: 36689543 PMCID: PMC9870163 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0280834] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/29/2022] [Accepted: 01/10/2023] [Indexed: 01/24/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND The prediction and prevention of influenza is a public health issue of great concern, and the study of timely acquisition of influenza transmission trend has become an important research topic. For achieving more quicker and accurate detection and prediction, the data recorded on the Internet, especially on the search engine from Google or Baidu are widely introduced into this field. Moreover, with the development of intelligent technology and machine learning algorithm, many updated and advanced trend tracking and forecasting methods are also being used in this research problem. METHODS In this paper, a new recurrent neural network architecture, attention-based long short-term memory model is proposed for influenza surveillance. This is a kind of deep learning model which is trained by processing from Baidu Index series so as to fit the real influenza survey time series. Previous studies on influenza surveillance by Baidu Index mostly used traditional autoregressive moving average model or classical machine learning models such as logarithmic linear regression, support vector regression or multi-layer perception model to fit influenza like illness data, which less considered the deep learning structure. Meanwhile, some new model that considered the deep learning structure did not take into account the application of Baidu index data. This study considers introducing the recurrent neural network with long short-term memory combined with attention mechanism into the influenza surveillance research model, which not only fits the research problems well in model structure, but also provides research methods based on Baidu index. RESULTS The actual survey data and Baidu Index data are used to train and test the proposed attention-based long short-term memory model and the other comparison models, so as to iterate the value of the model parameters, and to describe and predict the influenza epidemic situation. The experimental results show that our proposed model has better performance in the mean absolute error, mean absolute percentage error, index of agreement and other indicators than the other comparison models. CONCLUSION Our proposed attention-based long short-term memory model vividly verifies the ability of this attention-based long short-term memory structure for better surveillance and prediction the trend of influenza. In comparison with some of the latest models and methods in this research field, the model we proposed is also excellent in effect, even more lightweight and robust. Future research direction can consider fusing multimodal data based on this model and developing more application scenarios.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Shangfang Dai
- School of Economics and Management, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
| | - Litao Han
- School of Mathematics, Renmin University of China, Beijing, China
| |
Collapse
|
3
|
Wang D, Guerra A, Wittke F, Lang JC, Bakker K, Lee AW, Finelli L, Chen YH. Real-Time Monitoring of Infectious Disease Outbreaks with a Combination of Google Trends Search Results and the Moving Epidemic Method: A Respiratory Syncytial Virus Case Study. Trop Med Infect Dis 2023; 8:tropicalmed8020075. [PMID: 36828491 PMCID: PMC9962753 DOI: 10.3390/tropicalmed8020075] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/08/2022] [Revised: 01/07/2023] [Accepted: 01/16/2023] [Indexed: 01/22/2023] Open
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the seasonal patterns of several infectious diseases. Understanding when and where an outbreak may occur is vital for public health planning and response. We usually rely on well-functioning surveillance systems to monitor epidemic outbreaks. However, not all countries have a well-functioning surveillance system in place, or at least not for the pathogen in question. We utilized Google Trends search results for RSV-related keywords to identify outbreaks. We evaluated the strength of the Pearson correlation coefficient between clinical surveillance data and online search data and applied the Moving Epidemic Method (MEM) to identify country-specific epidemic thresholds. Additionally, we established pseudo-RSV surveillance systems, enabling internal stakeholders to obtain insights on the speed and risk of any emerging RSV outbreaks in countries with imprecise disease surveillance systems but with Google Trends data. Strong correlations between RSV clinical surveillance data and Google Trends search results from several countries were observed. In monitoring an upcoming RSV outbreak with MEM, data collected from both systems yielded similar estimates of country-specific epidemic thresholds, starting time, and duration. We demonstrate in this study the potential of monitoring disease outbreaks in real time and complement classical disease surveillance systems by leveraging online search data.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Dawei Wang
- Health Economic and Decision Sciences, Merck & Co., Inc., Kenilworth, NJ 07065, USA
- Correspondence:
| | - Andrea Guerra
- Clinical Development, MSD, Kings Cross, London EC2M 6UR, UK
| | | | - John Cameron Lang
- Health Economic and Decision Sciences, Merck & Co., Inc., Kenilworth, NJ 07065, USA
| | - Kevin Bakker
- Health Economic and Decision Sciences, Merck & Co., Inc., Kenilworth, NJ 07065, USA
| | - Andrew W. Lee
- Clinical Development, Merck & Co., Inc., Kenilworth, NJ 07065, USA
| | - Lyn Finelli
- Clinical Development, Merck & Co., Inc., Kenilworth, NJ 07065, USA
| | - Yao-Hsuan Chen
- Health Economic and Decision Sciences, MSD, Kings Cross, London EC2M 6UR, UK
| |
Collapse
|
4
|
Xiao J, Gao M, Huang M, Zhang W, Du Z, Liu T, Meng X, Ma W, Lin S. How do El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and local meteorological factors affect the incidence of seasonal influenza in New York state. HYGIENE AND ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH ADVANCES 2022; 4:100040. [PMID: 36777308 PMCID: PMC9914518 DOI: 10.1016/j.heha.2022.100040] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
Background Research is lacking in examining how multiple climate factors affect the incidence of seasonal influenza. We investigated the associations between El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO), meteorological factors, and influenza incidence in New York State, United States. Method We collected emergency department visit data for influenza from the New York State Department of Health. ENSO index was obtained from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Meteorological factors, Google Flu Search Index (GFI), and Influenza-like illness (ILI) data in New York State were also collected. Wavelet analysis was used to quantitatively estimate the coherence and phase difference of ENSO, temperature, precipitation, relative humidity, and absolute humidity with emergency department visits of influenza in New York State. Generalized additive models (GAM) were employed to examine the exposure-response relationships between ENSO, weather, and influenza. GFI and ILI data were used to simulate synchronous influenza visits. Results The influenza epidemic in New York State had multiple periodic and was primarily on the 1-year scale. The incidence of influenza closely followed the low ENSO index by an average of two months, and the lag period of ENSO on influenza was shorter during 2015-2018. Low temperature in the previous 2 weeks and low absolute humidity in the prior week were positively associated with influenza incidence in New York State. We found an l-shaped association between ENSO index and influenza, a parabolic relationship between temperature in the previous two weeks and influenza, and a linear negative association between absolute humidity in the previous week and influenza. The simulation models including GFI and ILI had higher accuracy for influenza visit estimation. Conclusions Low ENSO index, low temperature, and low absolute humidity may drive the influenza epidemics in New York State. The findings can help us deepen the understanding of the climate-influenza association, and help to develop an influenza forecasting model.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Jianpeng Xiao
- Guangdong Provincial Institute of Public Health, Guangdong Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Guangzhou 511430, China,Department of Occupational Health and Occupational Medicine, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Tropical Disease Research, School of Public Health, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou 510515, China,Department of Environmental Health Sciences, School of Public Health, University at Albany, State University of New York, Rensselaer, NY 12144, United States
| | - Michael Gao
- Department of Environmental Health Sciences, School of Public Health, University at Albany, State University of New York, Rensselaer, NY 12144, United States
| | - Miaoling Huang
- Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510120, China
| | - Wangjian Zhang
- Department of Medical Statistics and Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510080, China
| | - Zhicheng Du
- Department of Medical Statistics and Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510080, China
| | - Tao Liu
- Guangdong Provincial Institute of Public Health, Guangdong Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Guangzhou 511430, China,Department of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, School of Medicine, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632, Guangdong, China
| | - Xiaojing Meng
- Department of Occupational Health and Occupational Medicine, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Tropical Disease Research, School of Public Health, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou 510515, China
| | - Wenjun Ma
- Guangdong Provincial Institute of Public Health, Guangdong Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Guangzhou 511430, China,Department of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, School of Medicine, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632, Guangdong, China
| | - Shao Lin
- Department of Environmental Health Sciences, School of Public Health, University at Albany, State University of New York, Rensselaer, NY 12144, United States,Corresponding author at: One University Place, Rensselaer, NY 12144, (S. Lin)
| |
Collapse
|
5
|
Fan B, Peng J, Guo H, Gu H, Xu K, Wu T. Accurate Forecasting of Emergency Department Arrivals With Internet Search Index and Machine Learning Models: Model Development and Performance Evaluation. JMIR Med Inform 2022; 10:e34504. [PMID: 35857360 PMCID: PMC9350824 DOI: 10.2196/34504] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/27/2021] [Revised: 04/22/2022] [Accepted: 05/25/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Emergency department (ED) overcrowding is a concerning global health care issue, which is mainly caused by the uncertainty of patient arrivals, especially during the pandemic. Accurate forecasting of patient arrivals can allow health resource allocation in advance to reduce overcrowding. Currently, traditional data, such as historical patient visits, weather, holiday, and calendar, are primarily used to create forecasting models. However, data from an internet search engine (eg, Google) is less studied, although they can provide pivotal real-time surveillance information. The internet data can be employed to improve forecasting performance and provide early warning, especially during the epidemic. Moreover, possible nonlinearities between patient arrivals and these variables are often ignored. OBJECTIVE This study aims to develop an intelligent forecasting system with machine learning models and internet search index to provide an accurate prediction of ED patient arrivals, to verify the effectiveness of the internet search index, and to explore whether nonlinear models can improve the forecasting accuracy. METHODS Data on ED patient arrivals were collected from July 12, 2009, to June 27, 2010, the period of the 2009 H1N1 pandemic. These included 139,910 ED visits in our collaborative hospital, which is one of the biggest public hospitals in Hong Kong. Traditional data were also collected during the same period. The internet search index was generated from 268 search queries on Google to comprehensively capture the information about potential patients. The relationship between the index and patient arrivals was verified by Pearson correlation coefficient, Johansen cointegration, and Granger causality. Linear and nonlinear models were then developed with the internet search index to predict patient arrivals. The accuracy and robustness were also examined. RESULTS All models could accurately predict patient arrivals. The causality test indicated internet search index as a strong predictor of ED patient arrivals. With the internet search index, the mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) and the root mean square error (RMSE) of the linear model reduced from 5.3% to 5.0% and from 24.44 to 23.18, respectively, whereas the MAPE and RMSE of the nonlinear model decreased even more, from 3.5% to 3% and from 16.72 to 14.55, respectively. Compared with each other, the experimental results revealed that the forecasting system with extreme learning machine, as well as the internet search index, had the best performance in both forecasting accuracy and robustness analysis. CONCLUSIONS The proposed forecasting system can make accurate, real-time prediction of ED patient arrivals. Compared with the static traditional variables, the internet search index significantly improves forecasting as a reliable predictor monitoring continuous behavior trend and sudden changes during the epidemic (P=.002). The nonlinear model performs better than the linear counterparts by capturing the dynamic relationship between the index and patient arrivals. Thus, the system can facilitate staff planning and workflow monitoring.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Bi Fan
- College of Management, Institute of Business Analysis and Supply Chain Management, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China
| | - Jiaxuan Peng
- Faculty of Science, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, United Kingdom
| | - Hainan Guo
- College of Management, Institute of Business Analysis and Supply Chain Management, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China
| | - Haobin Gu
- School of Management Science and Engineering, Dongbei University of Finance and Economics, Dalian, China
| | - Kangkang Xu
- School of Electromechanical Engineering, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou, China
| | - Tingting Wu
- College of Management, Institute of Business Analysis and Supply Chain Management, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China
| |
Collapse
|
6
|
AlRyalat SA, Al Oweidat K, Al-Essa M, Ashouri K, El Khatib O, Al-Rawashdeh A, Yaseen A, Toumar A, Alrwashdeh A. Influenza Altmetric Attention Score and its association with the influenza season in the USA. F1000Res 2022; 9:96. [PMID: 35465063 PMCID: PMC9021684 DOI: 10.12688/f1000research.22127.3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 03/04/2022] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Background: Altmetrics measure the impact of journal articles by tracking social media, Wikipedia, public policy documents, blogs, and mainstream news activity, after which an overall Altmetric attention score (AAS) is calculated for every journal article. In this study, we aim to assess the AAS for influenza related articles and its relation to the influenza season in the USA. Methods: This study used the openly available Altmetric data from Altmetric.com. First, we retrieved all influenza-related articles using an advanced PubMed search query, then we inputted the resulted query into Altmetric explorer. We then calculated the average AAS for each month during the years 2012-2018. Results: A total of 24,964 PubMed documents were extracted, among them, 12,395 documents had at least one attention. We found a significant difference in mean AAS between February and each of January and March (p< 0.001, mean difference of 117.4 and 460.7, respectively). We found a significant difference between June and each of May and July (p< 0.001, mean difference of 1221.4 and 162.7, respectively). We also found a significant difference between October and each of September and November (p< 0.001, mean difference of 88.8 and 154.8, respectively). Conclusion: We observed a seasonal trend in the attention toward influenza-related research, with three annual peaks that correlated with the beginning, peak, and end of influenza seasons in the USA, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data.
Collapse
|
7
|
Noel G, Maghoo A, Piarroux J, Viudes G, Minodier P, Gentile S. Impact of Viral Seasonal Outbreaks on Crowding and Health Care Quality in Pediatric Emergency Departments. Pediatr Emerg Care 2021; 37:e1239-e1243. [PMID: 32058424 DOI: 10.1097/pec.0000000000001985] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Abstract
ABSTRACT In pediatric emergency departments (PEDs), seasonal viral outbreaks are believed to be associated with an increase of workload, but no quantification of this impact has been published. A retrospective cross-sectional study aimed to measure this impact on crowding and health care quality in PED. The study was performed in 1 PED for 3 years. Visits related to bronchiolitis, influenza, and gastroenteritis were defined using discharge diagnoses. The daily epidemic load (DEL) was the proportion of visits related to one of these diagnoses. The daily mean of 8 crowding indicators (selected in a published Delphi study) was used. A total of 93,976 children were admitted (bronchiolitis, 2253; influenza, 1277; gastroenteritis, 7678). The mean DEL was 10.4% (maximum, 33.6%). The correlation between the DEL and each indicator was significant. The correlation was stronger for bronchiolitis (Pearson R from 0.171 for number of hospitalization to 0.358 for length of stay). Between the first and fourth quartiles of the DEL, a significant increase, between 50% (patients left without being seen) and 8% (patient physician ratio), of all the indicators was observed. In conclusion, seasonal viral outbreaks have a strong impact on crowding and quality of care. The evolution of "patients left without being seen" between the first and fourth quartiles of DEL could be used as an indicator reflecting the capacity of adaptation of an emergency department to outbreaks.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | - Gilles Viudes
- From the Observatoire Régional des Urgences PACA, Hyères
| | | | | |
Collapse
|
8
|
Rothman RE, Hsieh YH, DuVal A, Talan DA, Moran GJ, Krishnadasan A, Shaw-Saliba K, Dugas AF. Front-Line Emergency Department Clinician Acceptability and Use of a Prototype Real-Time Cloud-Based Influenza Surveillance System. Front Public Health 2021; 9:740258. [PMID: 34805066 PMCID: PMC8601200 DOI: 10.3389/fpubh.2021.740258] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/12/2021] [Accepted: 10/11/2021] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Objectives: To assess emergency department (ED) clinicians' perceptions of a novel real-time influenza surveillance system using a pre- and post-implementation structured survey. Methods: We created and implemented a laboratory-based real-time influenza surveillance system at two EDs at the beginning of the 2013-2014 influenza season. Patients with acute respiratory illness were tested for influenza using rapid PCR-based Cepheid Xpert Flu assay. Results were instantaneously uploaded to a cloud-based data aggregation system made available to clinicians via a web-based dashboard. Clinicians received bimonthly email updates summating year-to-date results. Clinicians were surveyed prior to, and after the influenza season, to assess their views regarding acceptability and utility of the surveillance system data which were shared via dashboard and email updates. Results: The pre-implementation survey revealed that the majority (82%) of the 151 ED clinicians responded that they “sporadically” or “don't,” actively seek influenza-related information during the season. However, most (75%) reported that they would find additional information regarding influenza prevalence useful. Following implementation, there was an overall increase in the frequency of clinician self-reporting increased access to surveillance information from 50 to 63%, with the majority (75%) indicating that the surveillance emails impacted their general awareness of influenza. Clinicians reported that the additional real-time surveillance data impacted their testing (65%) and treatment (51%) practices. Conclusions: The majority of ED clinicians found surveillance data useful and indicated the additional information impacted their clinical practice. Accurate and timely surveillance information, distributed in a provider-friendly format could impact ED clinician management of patients with suspected influenza.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Richard E Rothman
- Department of Emergency Medicine, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, United States
| | - Yu-Hsiang Hsieh
- Department of Emergency Medicine, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, United States
| | - Anna DuVal
- Department of Emergency Medicine, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, United States
| | - David A Talan
- Ronald Reagan University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA, United States
| | - Gregory J Moran
- University of California, Olive-View Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA, United States
| | - Anusha Krishnadasan
- University of California, Olive-View Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA, United States
| | - Katy Shaw-Saliba
- Department of Emergency Medicine, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, United States
| | - Andrea F Dugas
- Department of Emergency Medicine, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, United States
| |
Collapse
|
9
|
Lee K, Ray J, Safta C. The predictive skill of convolutional neural networks models for disease forecasting. PLoS One 2021; 16:e0254319. [PMID: 34242349 PMCID: PMC8270135 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0254319] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/23/2020] [Accepted: 06/24/2021] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
In this paper we investigate the utility of one-dimensional convolutional neural network (CNN) models in epidemiological forecasting. Deep learning models, in particular variants of recurrent neural networks (RNNs) have been studied for ILI (Influenza-Like Illness) forecasting, and have achieved a higher forecasting skill compared to conventional models such as ARIMA. In this study, we adapt two neural networks that employ one-dimensional temporal convolutional layers as a primary building block-temporal convolutional networks and simple neural attentive meta-learners-for epidemiological forecasting. We then test them with influenza data from the US collected over 2010-2019. We find that epidemiological forecasting with CNNs is feasible, and their forecasting skill is comparable to, and at times, superior to, plain RNNs. Thus CNNs and RNNs bring the power of nonlinear transformations to purely data-driven epidemiological models, a capability that heretofore has been limited to more elaborate mechanistic/compartmental disease models.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Kookjin Lee
- Computing, Informatics and Decision Systems Engineering, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, United States of America
- Extreme-Scale Data Science and Analytics, Sandia National Laboratories, Livermore, CA, United States of America
| | - Jaideep Ray
- Extreme-Scale Data Science and Analytics, Sandia National Laboratories, Livermore, CA, United States of America
| | - Cosmin Safta
- Quantitative Modeling and Analysis, Sandia National Laboratories, Livermore, CA, United States of America
| |
Collapse
|
10
|
Lee J, Kwan Y, Lee JY, Shin JI, Lee KH, Hong SH, Han YJ, Kronbichler A, Smith L, Koyanagi A, Jacob L, Choi S, Ghayda RA, Park MB. Public Interest in Immunity and the Justification for Intervention in the Early Stages of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Analysis of Google Trends Data. J Med Internet Res 2021; 23:e26368. [PMID: 34038375 PMCID: PMC8216330 DOI: 10.2196/26368] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/08/2020] [Revised: 02/04/2021] [Accepted: 04/15/2021] [Indexed: 01/24/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND The use of social big data is an important emerging concern in public health. Internet search volumes are useful data that can sensitively detect trends of the public's attention during a pandemic outbreak situation. OBJECTIVE Our study aimed to analyze the public's interest in COVID-19 proliferation, identify the correlation between the proliferation of COVID-19 and interest in immunity and products that have been reported to confer an enhancement of immunity, and suggest measures for interventions that should be implemented from a health and medical point of view. METHODS To assess the level of public interest in infectious diseases during the initial days of the COVID-19 outbreak, we extracted Google search data from January 20, 2020, onward and compared them to data from March 15, 2020, which was approximately 2 months after the COVID-19 outbreak began. In order to determine whether the public became interested in the immune system, we selected coronavirus, immune, and vitamin as our final search terms. RESULTS The increase in the cumulative number of confirmed COVID-19 cases that occurred after January 20, 2020, had a strong positive correlation with the search volumes for the terms coronavirus (R=0.786; P<.001), immune (R=0.745; P<.001), and vitamin (R=0.778; P<.001), and the correlations between variables were all mutually statistically significant. Moreover, these correlations were confirmed on a country basis when we restricted our analyses to the United States, the United Kingdom, Italy, and Korea. Our findings revealed that increases in search volumes for the terms coronavirus and immune preceded the actual occurrences of confirmed cases. CONCLUSIONS Our study shows that during the initial phase of the COVID-19 crisis, the public's desire and actions of strengthening their own immune systems were enhanced. Further, in the early stage of a pandemic, social media platforms have a high potential for informing the public about potentially helpful measures to prevent the spread of an infectious disease and provide relevant information about immunity, thereby increasing the public's knowledge.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Jinhee Lee
- Department of Psychiatry, Yonsei University Wonju College of Medicine, Wonju, Republic of Korea
| | - Yunna Kwan
- Department of Psychiatry, Yonsei University Wonju College of Medicine, Wonju, Republic of Korea.,Department of Psychology, Duksung Women's University, Seoul, Republic of Korea
| | - Jun Young Lee
- Department of Nephrology, Yonsei University Wonju College of Medicine, Wonju, Republic of Korea
| | - Jae Il Shin
- Department of Pediatrics, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea
| | - Keum Hwa Lee
- Department of Pediatrics, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea
| | - Sung Hwi Hong
- Department of Pediatrics, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea
| | - Young Joo Han
- Department of Pediatrics, Samsung Changwon Hospital, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Changwon, Republic of Korea
| | - Andreas Kronbichler
- Department of Internal Medicine IV, Nephrology and Hypertension, Medical University Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria
| | - Lee Smith
- The Cambridge Centre for Sport and Exercise Sciences, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, United Kingdom
| | - Ai Koyanagi
- Parc Sanitari Sant Joan de Déu/Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Salud Mental, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.,Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Louis Jacob
- Parc Sanitari Sant Joan de Déu/Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Salud Mental, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.,Faculty of Medicine, University of Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, Paris, France
| | - SungWon Choi
- Department of Psychology, Duksung Women's University, Seoul, Republic of Korea
| | - Ramy Abou Ghayda
- Department of Global Health and Population, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, United States.,Urology Institute, University Hospitals, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, United States
| | - Myung-Bae Park
- Department of Gerontology Health and Welfare, Pai Chai University, Daejeon, Republic of Korea
| |
Collapse
|
11
|
Rahman MM, Khatun F, Uzzaman A, Sami SI, Bhuiyan MAA, Kiong TS. A Comprehensive Study of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Approaches in Confronting the Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF HEALTH SERVICES 2021; 51:446-461. [PMID: 33999732 DOI: 10.1177/00207314211017469] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/14/2022]
Abstract
The novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has spread over 219 countries of the globe as a pandemic, creating alarming impacts on health care, socioeconomic environments, and international relationships. The principal objective of the study is to provide the current technological aspects of artificial intelligence (AI) and other relevant technologies and their implications for confronting COVID-19 and preventing the pandemic's dreadful effects. This article presents AI approaches that have significant contributions in the fields of health care, then highlights and categorizes their applications in confronting COVID-19, such as detection and diagnosis, data analysis and treatment procedures, research and drug development, social control and services, and the prediction of outbreaks. The study addresses the link between the technologies and the epidemics as well as the potential impacts of technology in health care with the introduction of machine learning and natural language processing tools. It is expected that this comprehensive study will support researchers in modeling health care systems and drive further studies in advanced technologies. Finally, we propose future directions in research and conclude that persuasive AI strategies, probabilistic models, and supervised learning are required to tackle future pandemic challenges.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Md Mijanur Rahman
- 421983Jatiya Kabi Kazi Nazrul Islam University, Trishal, Mymensingh, Bangladesh
| | - Fatema Khatun
- 421965Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Science & Technology University, Gopalganj, Dhaka, Bangladesh
| | - Ashik Uzzaman
- 421983Jatiya Kabi Kazi Nazrul Islam University, Trishal, Mymensingh, Bangladesh
| | - Sadia Islam Sami
- 421983Jatiya Kabi Kazi Nazrul Islam University, Trishal, Mymensingh, Bangladesh
| | | | - Tiong Sieh Kiong
- 65292Universiti Tenaga Nasional (UNITEN), Kajang, Selangor, Malaysia
| |
Collapse
|
12
|
Jun SP, Yoo HS, Lee JS. The impact of the pandemic declaration on public awareness and behavior: Focusing on COVID-19 google searches. TECHNOLOGICAL FORECASTING AND SOCIAL CHANGE 2021; 166:120592. [PMID: 33776154 PMCID: PMC7978359 DOI: 10.1016/j.techfore.2021.120592] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/20/2020] [Revised: 01/06/2021] [Accepted: 01/07/2021] [Indexed: 05/28/2023]
Abstract
The unprecedented outbreaks of epidemics such as the coronavirus has caused major socio-economic changes. To analyze public risk awareness and behavior in response to the outbreak of epidemic diseases, this study focuses on RSV (Relative Search Volume) provided by Google Trends. This study uses the social big data provided by Google RSV to investigate how the WHO's pandemic declaration affected public awareness and behavior. 37 OECD countries were analyzed and clustered according to the degree of reaction to the declaration, and the United States, France and Germany were selected for comparative study. The results of this study statistically confirmed that the pandemic declaration increased public awareness and had the effect of increasing searches for information on COVID-19 by more than 20%. In addition, this rapid rise in RSV also reflected interest in the COVID-19 test and had the effect of inducing individuals to be tested, which helped identify new cases. The significance of this study is that it provided the theoretical foundation for using RSV and its implications to understand and strategically utilize public awareness and behavior in situations where the WHO and governments must launch policies in response to the outbreak of new infectious diseases such as COVID-19.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Seung-Pyo Jun
- Data Analysis Platform Center, Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information and Science & Technology Management Policy, University of Science & Technology (UST), 66, Hoegi-ro, Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul 130-741, Korea
| | - Hyoung Sun Yoo
- Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information and Science & Technology Management Policy, University of Science & Technology (UST), 66, Hoegi-ro, Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul 130-741, Korea
| | - Jae-Seong Lee
- Data Analysis Platform Center, Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information and Science & Technology Management Policy, University of Science & Technology (UST), 66, Hoegi-ro, Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul 130-741, Korea
| |
Collapse
|
13
|
Park MB, Wang JM, Bulwer BE. Global Dieting Trends and Seasonality: Social Big-Data Analysis May Be a Useful Tool. Nutrients 2021; 13:nu13041069. [PMID: 33806069 PMCID: PMC8064504 DOI: 10.3390/nu13041069] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/08/2021] [Revised: 03/15/2021] [Accepted: 03/20/2021] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
We explored online search interest in dieting and weight loss using big-data analysis with a view to its potential utility in global obesity prevention efforts. We applied big-data analysis to the global dieting trends collected from Google and Naver search engines from January 2004 to January 2018 using the search term “diet,” in selected six Northern and Southern Hemisphere countries; five Arab and Muslim countries grouped as conservative, semi-conservative, and liberal; and South Korea. Using cosinor analysis to evaluate the periodic flow of time series data, there was seasonality for global search interest in dieting and weight loss (amplitude = 6.94, CI = 5.33~8.56, p < 0.000) with highest in January and the lowest in December for both Northern and Southern Hemisphere countries. Seasonal dieting trend in the Arab and Muslim countries was present, but less remarkable (monthly seasonal seasonality, amplitude = 4.07, CI = 2.20~5.95, p < 0.000). For South Korea, seasonality was noted on Naver (amplitude = 11.84, CI = 7.62~16.05, p < 0.000). Our findings suggest that big-data analysis of social media can be an adjunct in tackling important public health issues like dieting, weight loss, obesity, and food fads, including the optimal timing of interventions.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Myung-Bae Park
- Department of Gerontal Health and Welfare, Pai Chai University, Daejeon 35345, Korea
- Correspondence: (M.-B.P.); (J.M.W.); (B.E.B.)
| | - Ju Mee Wang
- Department of Gerontal Health and Welfare, Pai Chai University, Daejeon 35345, Korea
- The Korean Cardiac Research Foundation, Seoul 04158, Korea
- Correspondence: (M.-B.P.); (J.M.W.); (B.E.B.)
| | - Bernard E. Bulwer
- The Korean Cardiac Research Foundation, Seoul 04158, Korea
- BEB-Noninvasive Cardiovascular Research, Cardiovascular Division, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA 02115, USA
- Correspondence: (M.-B.P.); (J.M.W.); (B.E.B.)
| |
Collapse
|
14
|
Prieto Santamaría L, Tuñas JM, Fernández Peces-Barba D, Jaramillo A, Cotarelo M, Menasalvas E, Conejo Fernández A, Arce A, Gil de Miguel A, Rodríguez González A. Influenza and Measles-MMR: two case study of the trend and impact of vaccine-related Twitter posts in Spanish during 2015-2018. Hum Vaccin Immunother 2021; 18:1-16. [PMID: 33662222 PMCID: PMC9128558 DOI: 10.1080/21645515.2021.1877597] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Social media, and in particularly Twitter, can be a resource of enormous value to retrieve information about the opinion of general population to vaccines. The increasing popularity of this social media has allowed to use its content to have a clear picture of their users on this topic. In this paper, we perform a study about vaccine-related messages published in Spanish during 2015-2018. More specifically, the paper has focused on two specific diseases: influenza and measles (and MMR as its vaccine). By also including an analysis about the sentiment expressed on the published tweets, we have been able to identify the type of messages that are published on Twitter with respect these two pathologies and their vaccines. Results showed that in contrary on popular opinions, most of the messages published are non-negative. On the other hand, the analysis showed that some messages attracted a huge attention and provoked peaks in the number of published tweets, explaining some changes in the observed trends.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Lucia Prieto Santamaría
- Centro de Tecnología Biomédica, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Pozuelo de Alarcón, Spain.,Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingenieros Informáticos, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Boadilla del Monte, Spain
| | - Juan Manuel Tuñas
- Centro de Tecnología Biomédica, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Pozuelo de Alarcón, Spain
| | | | | | - Manuel Cotarelo
- Global Medical and Scientific Affairs, MSD España, Madrid, Spain
| | - Ernestina Menasalvas
- Centro de Tecnología Biomédica, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Pozuelo de Alarcón, Spain.,Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingenieros Informáticos, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Boadilla del Monte, Spain
| | | | | | - Angel Gil de Miguel
- Departamento de Especialidades Médicas y Salud Pública, Facultad de Ciencias de la Salud, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Madrid, Spain
| | - Alejandro Rodríguez González
- Centro de Tecnología Biomédica, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Pozuelo de Alarcón, Spain.,Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingenieros Informáticos, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Boadilla del Monte, Spain
| |
Collapse
|
15
|
Twitter vs. Zika—The role of social media in epidemic outbreaks surveillance. HEALTH POLICY AND TECHNOLOGY 2021. [DOI: 10.1016/j.hlpt.2020.10.014] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/22/2022]
|
16
|
Identifying Polarity in Tweets from an Imbalanced Dataset about Diseases and Vaccines Using a Meta-Model Based on Machine Learning Techniques. APPLIED SCIENCES-BASEL 2020. [DOI: 10.3390/app10249019] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
Sentiment analysis is one of the hottest topics in the area of natural language. It has attracted a huge interest from both the scientific and industrial perspective. Identifying the sentiment expressed in a piece of textual information is a challenging task that several commercial tools have tried to address. In our aim of capturing the sentiment expressed in a set of tweets retrieved for a study about vaccines and diseases during the period 2015–2018, we found that some of the main commercial tools did not allow an accurate identification of the sentiment expressed in a tweet. For this reason, we aimed to create a meta-model which used the results of the commercial tools to improve the results of the tools individually. As part of this research, we had to deal with the problem of unbalanced data. This paper presents the main results in creating a metal-model from three commercial tools to the correct identification of sentiment in tweets by using different machine-learning techniques and methods and dealing with the unbalanced data problem.
Collapse
|
17
|
Hswen Y, Brownstein JS, Xu X, Yom-Tov E. Early detection of COVID-19 in China and the USA: summary of the implementation of a digital decision-support and disease surveillance tool. BMJ Open 2020; 10:e041004. [PMID: 33303453 PMCID: PMC7733221 DOI: 10.1136/bmjopen-2020-041004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/29/2020] [Revised: 11/14/2020] [Accepted: 11/17/2020] [Indexed: 01/01/2023] Open
Abstract
OBJECTIVES Rapid detection and surveillance of COVID-19 is essential to reducing spread of the virus. Inadequate screening capacity has hampered COVID-19 detection, while traditional infectious disease response has been delayed due to significant demands for healthcare resources, time and personnel. This study investigated whether an online health decision-support tool could supplement COVID-19 surveillance and detection in China and the USA. SETTING Daily website traffic to Thermia was collected from China and the USA, and cross-correlation analyses were used to assess the designated lag time between the daily time series of Thermia sessions and COVID-19 case counts from 22 January to 23 April 2020. PARTICIPANTS Thermia is a validated health decision-support tool that was modified to include content aimed at educating users about Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommendations on COVID-19 symptoms. An advertising campaign was released on Microsoft Advertising to refer searches for COVID-19 symptoms to Thermia. RESULTS The lead times observed for Thermia sessions to COVID-19 case reports was 3 days in China and 19 days in the USA. We found negative cross-correlation between the number of Thermia sessions and rates of influenza A and B, possibly due to the decreasing prevalence of influenza and the lack of specificity of the system for identification of COVID-19. CONCLUSION This study suggests that early deployment of an online campaign and modified health decision-support tool may support identification of emerging infectious diseases like COVID-19. Researchers and public health officials should deploy web campaigns as early as possible in an epidemic to detect, identify and engage those potentially at risk to help prevent transmission of the disease.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Yulin Hswen
- Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Bakar Computational Health Institute, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA
- Computational Epidemiology Lab, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
- Innovation Program, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
| | - John S Brownstein
- Computational Epidemiology Lab, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
- Innovation Program, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Xiang Xu
- Department of Statistics, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Elad Yom-Tov
- Microsoft Research, Herzeliya, Israel
- Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Management, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel
| |
Collapse
|
18
|
Álvarez-Mon MA, Rodríguez-Quiroga A, de Anta L, Quintero J. [Medical applications of social networks. Specific aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic]. Medicine (Baltimore) 2020; 13:1305-1310. [PMID: 33519029 PMCID: PMC7833728 DOI: 10.1016/j.med.2020.12.012] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022] Open
Abstract
For years, social networks have been incorporated into the day-to-day of the majority of the population. In this context, a new area of knowledge in medicine has been developed: infodemiology. It is defined as the evaluation, with the objective of improving public health, of health-related information that users upload to the network. In addition, social networks offer many possibilities for conducting public health campaigns, accessing patients, or carrying out treatment interventions.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- M A Álvarez-Mon
- Servicio de Psiquiatría y Salud Mental, Hospital Universitario Infanta Leonor, Madrid, España
| | - A Rodríguez-Quiroga
- Servicio de Psiquiatría y Salud Mental, Hospital Universitario Infanta Leonor, Madrid, España
| | - L de Anta
- Servicio de Psiquiatría y Salud Mental, Hospital Universitario Infanta Leonor, Madrid, España
| | - J Quintero
- Servicio de Psiquiatría y Salud Mental, Hospital Universitario Infanta Leonor, Madrid, España
| |
Collapse
|
19
|
Asseo K, Fierro F, Slavutsky Y, Frasnelli J, Niv MY. Tracking COVID-19 using taste and smell loss Google searches is not a reliable strategy. Sci Rep 2020; 10:20527. [PMID: 33239650 PMCID: PMC7689487 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-77316-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/30/2020] [Accepted: 10/29/2020] [Indexed: 02/06/2023] Open
Abstract
Web search tools are widely used by the general public to obtain health-related information, and analysis of search data is often suggested for public health monitoring. We analyzed popularity of searches related to smell loss and taste loss, recently listed as symptoms of COVID-19. Searches on sight loss and hearing loss, which are not considered as COVID-19 symptoms, were used as control. Google Trends results per region in Italy or state in the US were compared to COVID-19 incidence in the corresponding geographical areas. The COVID-19 incidence did not correlate with searches for non-symptoms, but in some weeks had high correlation with taste and smell loss searches, which also correlated with each other. Correlation of the sensory symptoms with new COVID-19 cases for each country as a whole was high at some time points, but decreased (Italy) or dramatically fluctuated over time (US). Smell loss searches correlated with the incidence of media reports in the US. Our results show that popularity of symptom searches is not reliable for pandemic monitoring. Awareness of this limitation is important during the COVID-19 pandemic, which continues to spread and to exhibit new clinical manifestations, and for potential future health threats.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Kim Asseo
- The Institute of Biochemistry, Food Science and Nutrition, The Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Rehovot, Israel
| | - Fabrizio Fierro
- The Institute of Biochemistry, Food Science and Nutrition, The Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Rehovot, Israel
| | - Yuli Slavutsky
- Department of Statistics and Data Science, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Rehovot, Israel
| | - Johannes Frasnelli
- Department of Anatomy, University of Québec in Trois-Rivières, Trois-Rivières, QC, Canada
| | - Masha Y Niv
- The Institute of Biochemistry, Food Science and Nutrition, The Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Rehovot, Israel.
| |
Collapse
|
20
|
Kim D, Maxwell S, Le Q. Spatial and Temporal Comparison of Perceived Risks and Confirmed Cases of Lyme Disease: An Exploratory Study of Google Trends. Front Public Health 2020; 8:395. [PMID: 32923420 PMCID: PMC7456861 DOI: 10.3389/fpubh.2020.00395] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/08/2020] [Accepted: 07/06/2020] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Non-specific symptoms in later stages of Lyme disease (LD) may mimic a variety of autoimmune, viral, or complex diseases. Patients lacking erythema migrans or who test negative under CDC guidelines, but suspect LD may search online symptoms in vein. As a result, patients with lingering and undiagnosed symptoms turn to alternative lab tests. This study addresses patient's perceived illness in relation to CDC surveillance data. Extending the literature beyond basic searches for symptoms or disease terms, this study examines spatiotemporal dynamics among symptom, disease, and unconventional lab test searches on Google Trends, in compared with CDC confirmed cases of LD. The search terms used for the Google Trends analysis between 2011 and 2015 include: (1) "lyme" and "lyme disease" for disease, (2) "tick bite," "bone pain," "stiff neck," "circular rash," and "brain fog" for symptoms, and (3) "IGENEX" for the alternative lab test. Spatial and temporal analyses illustrate noticeable similar patterns between the search frequency and the actual LD incidence. Beyond basic searches for symptoms or disease terms, we demonstrate the improved utility of Google Trends analysis in discovering spatial and temporal patterns of perceived LD and comparing with the reported LD cases. The public health and medical communities benefit from this research through improved knowledge of undiagnosed patients who are searching for alternative labs to explain lingering symptoms. This study validates the need for further research into Google Trends data and surveillance protocols of diseases characterized by non-specific symptoms, prompting patients to "self-diagnose."
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Dohyeong Kim
- School of Economic, Political and Policy Sciences, University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX, United States
| | - Sarah Maxwell
- School of Economic, Political and Policy Sciences, University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX, United States
| | - Quang Le
- Department of Bioengineering, University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX, United States
| |
Collapse
|
21
|
Chang YW, Chiang WL, Wang WH, Lin CY, Hung LC, Tsai YC, Suen JL, Chen YH. Google Trends-based non-English language query data and epidemic diseases: a cross-sectional study of the popular search behaviour in Taiwan. BMJ Open 2020; 10:e034156. [PMID: 32624467 PMCID: PMC7337886 DOI: 10.1136/bmjopen-2019-034156] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
OBJECTIVE This study developed a surveillance system suitable for monitoring epidemic outbreaks and assessing public opinion in non-English-speaking countries. We evaluated whether social media reflects social uneasiness and fear during epidemic outbreaks and natural catastrophes. DESIGN Cross-sectional study. SETTING Freely available epidemic data in Taiwan. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE We used weekly epidemic incidence data obtained from the Taiwan Centers for Disease Control and online search query data obtained from Google Trends between 4 October 2015 and 2 April 2016. To validate whether non-English query keywords were useful surveillance tools, we estimated the correlation between online query data and epidemic incidence in Taiwan. RESULTS With our approach, we noted that keywords ('common cold'), ('fever') and ('cough') exhibited good to excellent correlation between Google Trends query data and influenza incidence (r=0.898, p<0.001; r=0.773, p<0.001; r=0.796, p<0.001, respectively). They also displayed high correlation with influenza-like illness emergencies (r=0.900, p<0.001; r=0.802, p<0.001; r=0.886, p<0.001, respectively) and outpatient visits (r=0.889, p<0.001; r=0.791, p<0.001; r=0.870, p<0.001, respectively). We noted that the query ('enterovirus') exhibited excellent correlation with the number of enterovirus-infected patients in emergency departments (r=0.914, p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS These results suggested that Google Trends can be a good surveillance tool for epidemic outbreaks, even in Taiwan, the non-English-speaking country. Online search activity indicates that people are concerned about epidemic diseases, even if they do not visit hospitals. This prompted us to develop useful tools to monitor social media during an epidemic because such media usage reflects infectious disease trends more quickly than does traditional reporting.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Yu-Wei Chang
- Graduate Institute of Medicine, College of Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
- Department of Laboratory, Taitung Hospital, Ministry of Health and Welfare, Taitung, Taiwan
| | - Wei-Lun Chiang
- Pan Media, Taipei, Taiwan
- OMNInsight Company Limited, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Wen-Hung Wang
- Center for Tropical Medicine and Infectious Disease Research, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
- Division of Infectious Disease, Department of Internal Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
| | - Chun-Yu Lin
- Graduate Institute of Medicine, College of Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
- Center for Tropical Medicine and Infectious Disease Research, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
- Division of Infectious Disease, Department of Internal Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
| | - Ling-Chien Hung
- Center for Tropical Medicine and Infectious Disease Research, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
- Division of Infectious Disease, Department of Internal Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
| | - Yi-Chang Tsai
- Department of Laboratory, Chang-Hua Hospital, Ministry of Health and Welfare, Chang Hua, Taiwan
| | - Jau-Ling Suen
- Graduate Institute of Medicine, College of Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
- Research Center of Environmental Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
- Department of Medical Research, Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
| | - Yen-Hsu Chen
- Center for Tropical Medicine and Infectious Disease Research, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
- Division of Infectious Disease, Department of Internal Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
- Department of Internal Medicine, Kaohsiung Municipal Ta-Tung Hospital, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
- Department of Biological Science and Technology, College of Biological Science and Technology, National Chiao Tung University, HsinChu, Taiwan
| |
Collapse
|
22
|
Shen C, Chen A, Luo C, Zhang J, Feng B, Liao W. Using Reports of Symptoms and Diagnoses on Social Media to Predict COVID-19 Case Counts in Mainland China: Observational Infoveillance Study. J Med Internet Res 2020; 22:e19421. [PMID: 32452804 PMCID: PMC7257484 DOI: 10.2196/19421] [Citation(s) in RCA: 66] [Impact Index Per Article: 16.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/16/2020] [Revised: 05/18/2020] [Accepted: 05/25/2020] [Indexed: 01/19/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has affected more than 200 countries and territories worldwide. This disease poses an extraordinary challenge for public health systems because screening and surveillance capacity is often severely limited, especially during the beginning of the outbreak; this can fuel the outbreak, as many patients can unknowingly infect other people. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to collect and analyze posts related to COVID-19 on Weibo, a popular Twitter-like social media site in China. To our knowledge, this infoveillance study employs the largest, most comprehensive, and most fine-grained social media data to date to predict COVID-19 case counts in mainland China. METHODS We built a Weibo user pool of 250 million people, approximately half the entire monthly active Weibo user population. Using a comprehensive list of 167 keywords, we retrieved and analyzed around 15 million COVID-19-related posts from our user pool from November 1, 2019 to March 31, 2020. We developed a machine learning classifier to identify "sick posts," in which users report their own or other people's symptoms and diagnoses related to COVID-19. Using officially reported case counts as the outcome, we then estimated the Granger causality of sick posts and other COVID-19 posts on daily case counts. For a subset of geotagged posts (3.10% of all retrieved posts), we also ran separate predictive models for Hubei province, the epicenter of the initial outbreak, and the rest of mainland China. RESULTS We found that reports of symptoms and diagnosis of COVID-19 significantly predicted daily case counts up to 14 days ahead of official statistics, whereas other COVID-19 posts did not have similar predictive power. For the subset of geotagged posts, we found that the predictive pattern held true for both Hubei province and the rest of mainland China regardless of the unequal distribution of health care resources and the outbreak timeline. CONCLUSIONS Public social media data can be usefully harnessed to predict infection cases and inform timely responses. Researchers and disease control agencies should pay close attention to the social media infosphere regarding COVID-19. In addition to monitoring overall search and posting activities, leveraging machine learning approaches and theoretical understanding of information sharing behaviors is a promising approach to identify true disease signals and improve the effectiveness of infoveillance.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Cuihua Shen
- Department of Communication, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA, United States
| | - Anfan Chen
- Department of Science Communication and Science Policy, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China
| | - Chen Luo
- School of Journalism and Communication, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
| | - Jingwen Zhang
- Department of Communication, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA, United States.,Department of Public Health Sciences, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA, United States
| | - Bo Feng
- Department of Communication, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA, United States
| | - Wang Liao
- Department of Communication, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA, United States
| |
Collapse
|
23
|
Google trends identifying seasons of religious gathering: applied to investigate the correlation between crowding and flu outbreak. Inf Process Manag 2020. [DOI: 10.1016/j.ipm.2020.102208] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
|
24
|
COVID-19 and digital epidemiology. JOURNAL OF PUBLIC HEALTH-HEIDELBERG 2020; 30:245-247. [PMID: 32355606 PMCID: PMC7190458 DOI: 10.1007/s10389-020-01295-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/03/2020] [Accepted: 04/22/2020] [Indexed: 12/21/2022]
|
25
|
Barros JM, Duggan J, Rebholz-Schuhmann D. The Application of Internet-Based Sources for Public Health Surveillance (Infoveillance): Systematic Review. J Med Internet Res 2020; 22:e13680. [PMID: 32167477 PMCID: PMC7101503 DOI: 10.2196/13680] [Citation(s) in RCA: 50] [Impact Index Per Article: 12.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/24/2019] [Revised: 09/18/2019] [Accepted: 11/26/2019] [Indexed: 12/30/2022] Open
Abstract
Background Public health surveillance is based on the continuous and systematic collection, analysis, and interpretation of data. This informs the development of early warning systems to monitor epidemics and documents the impact of intervention measures. The introduction of digital data sources, and specifically sources available on the internet, has impacted the field of public health surveillance. New opportunities enabled by the underlying availability and scale of internet-based sources (IBSs) have paved the way for novel approaches for disease surveillance, exploration of health communities, and the study of epidemic dynamics. This field and approach is also known as infodemiology or infoveillance. Objective This review aimed to assess research findings regarding the application of IBSs for public health surveillance (infodemiology or infoveillance). To achieve this, we have presented a comprehensive systematic literature review with a focus on these sources and their limitations, the diseases targeted, and commonly applied methods. Methods A systematic literature review was conducted targeting publications between 2012 and 2018 that leveraged IBSs for public health surveillance, outbreak forecasting, disease characterization, diagnosis prediction, content analysis, and health-topic identification. The search results were filtered according to previously defined inclusion and exclusion criteria. Results Spanning a total of 162 publications, we determined infectious diseases to be the preferred case study (108/162, 66.7%). Of the eight categories of IBSs (search queries, social media, news, discussion forums, websites, web encyclopedia, and online obituaries), search queries and social media were applied in 95.1% (154/162) of the reviewed publications. We also identified limitations in representativeness and biased user age groups, as well as high susceptibility to media events by search queries, social media, and web encyclopedias. Conclusions IBSs are a valuable proxy to study illnesses affecting the general population; however, it is important to characterize which diseases are best suited for the available sources; the literature shows that the level of engagement among online platforms can be a potential indicator. There is a necessity to understand the population’s online behavior; in addition, the exploration of health information dissemination and its content is significantly unexplored. With this information, we can understand how the population communicates about illnesses online and, in the process, benefit public health.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Joana M Barros
- Insight Centre for Data Analytics, National University of Ireland Galway, Galway, Ireland.,School of Computer Science, National University of Ireland Galway, Galway, Ireland
| | - Jim Duggan
- School of Computer Science, National University of Ireland Galway, Galway, Ireland
| | | |
Collapse
|
26
|
Crowson MG, Witsell D, Eskander A. Using Google Trends to Predict Pediatric Respiratory Syncytial Virus Encounters at a Major Health Care System. J Med Syst 2020; 44:57. [PMID: 31997013 DOI: 10.1007/s10916-020-1526-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/07/2019] [Accepted: 01/22/2020] [Indexed: 10/25/2022]
Abstract
To assess whether Google search activity predicts lead-time for pediatric respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) encounters within a major health care system. Internet user search and health system encounter database analysis. Pediatric RSV encounter volumes across all clinics and hospitals in the Duke Health system were tabulated from 2005 to 2016. North Carolina Google user search activity for RSV were obtained over the same time period. Time series analysis was used to compare RSV encounters and search activity. Cross-correlation was used to determine the 'lag' time difference between Google user search interest for RSV and observed Pediatric RSV encounter volumes. Google search activity and Pediatric RSV encounter volumes demonstrated strong seasonality with predilection for winter months. Granger Causality testing revealed that North Carolina RSV Google search activity can predict pediatric RSV encounters at our health system (F = 5.72, p < 0.0001). Using cross-correlation, increases in Google search activity provided lead time of 0.21 weeks (1.47 days) prior to observed increases in Pediatric RSV encounter volumes at our health system. RSV is a common cause of upper airway obstruction in pediatric patients for which pediatric otolaryngologists are consulted. We demonstrate that Google search activity can predict RSV patient interactions with a major health system with a measurable lead-time. The ability to predict when illnesses in a population result in increased health care utilization would be an asset to health system providers, planners and administrators. Prediction of RSV would allow specific care pathways to be developed and resource needs to be anticipated before actual presentation.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Matthew G Crowson
- Department of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Toronto, Ontario, M4N 3N5, Canada.
| | - David Witsell
- Division of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, USA
| | - Antoine Eskander
- Department of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Toronto, Ontario, M4N 3N5, Canada
| |
Collapse
|
27
|
Samaras L, García-Barriocanal E, Sicilia MA. Syndromic surveillance using web data: a systematic review. INNOVATION IN HEALTH INFORMATICS 2020. [PMCID: PMC7153324 DOI: 10.1016/b978-0-12-819043-2.00002-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/05/2022]
Abstract
During the recent years, a lot of debate is taken place about the evolution of Smart Healthcare systems. Particularly, how these systems can help people improve human conditions of health, by taking advantages of the new Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), regarding early prediction and efficient treatment. The purpose of this study is to provide a systematic review of the current literature available that focuses on information systems on syndromic surveillance using web data. All published items concern articles, books, reviews, reports, conference announcements, and dissertations. We used a variation of PRISMA Statements methodology to conduct a systematic review. The review identifies the relevant published papers from the year 2004 to 2018, systematically includes and explores them to extract similarities, gaps, and conclusions on the research that has been done so far. The results presented concern the year, the examined disease, the web data source, the geographic location/country, and the data analysis method used. The results show that influenza is the most examined infectious disease. The internet tools most used are Twitter and Google. Regarding the geographical areas explored in the published papers, the most examined country is the United States, since many scientists come from this country. There is a significant growth of articles since 2009. There are also various statistical methods used to correlate the data retrieved from the internet to the data from national authorities. The conclusion of all researches is that the Web can be a useful tool for the detection of serious epidemics and for a creation of a syndromic surveillance system using the Web, since we can predict epidemics from web data before they are officially detected in population. With the advance of ICT, Smart Healthcare can benefit from the monitoring of epidemics and the early prediction of such a system, improving national or international health strategies and policy decision. This can be achieved through the provision of new technology tools to enhance health monitoring systems toward the new innovations of Smart Health or eHealth, even with the emerging technologies of Internet of Things. The challenges and impacts of an electronic system based on internet data include the social, medical, and technological disciplines. These can be further extended to Smart Healthcare, as the data streaming can provide with real-time information, awareness on epidemics and alerts for both patients or medical scientists. Finally, these new systems can help improve the standards of human life.
Collapse
|
28
|
Barros JM, Melia R, Francis K, Bogue J, O'Sullivan M, Young K, Bernert RA, Rebholz-Schuhmann D, Duggan J. The Validity of Google Trends Search Volumes for Behavioral Forecasting of National Suicide Rates in Ireland. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH AND PUBLIC HEALTH 2019; 16:E3201. [PMID: 31480718 PMCID: PMC6747463 DOI: 10.3390/ijerph16173201] [Citation(s) in RCA: 35] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/12/2019] [Revised: 08/18/2019] [Accepted: 08/27/2019] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
Annual suicide figures are critical in identifying trends and guiding research, yet challenges arising from significant lags in reporting can delay and complicate real-time interventions. In this paper, we utilized Google Trends search volumes for behavioral forecasting of national suicide rates in Ireland between 2004 and 2015. Official suicide rates are recorded by the Central Statistics Office in Ireland. While similar investigations using Google trends data have been carried out in other jurisdictions (e.g., United Kingdom, United Stated of America), such research had not yet been completed in Ireland. We compiled a collection of suicide- and depression-related search terms suggested by Google Trends and manually sourced from the literature. Monthly search rate terms at different lags were compared with suicide occurrences to determine the degree of correlation. Following two approaches based on vector autoregression and neural network autoregression, we achieved mean absolute error values between 4.14 and 9.61 when incorporating search query data, with the highest performance for the neural network approach. The application of this process to United Kingdom suicide and search query data showed similar results, supporting the benefit of Google Trends, neural network approach, and the applied search terms to forecast suicide risk increase. Overall, the combination of societal data and online behavior provide a good indication of societal risks; building on past research, our improvements led to robust models integrating search query and unemployment data for suicide risk forecasting in Ireland.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Joana M Barros
- Insight Centre for Data Analytics, NUI Galway, H91 AEX4 Galway, Ireland.
- School of Computer Science, National University of Ireland Galway, Galway, Ireland.
| | - Ruth Melia
- Psychology Department, Health Service Executive MidWest, Ennis, Ireland
| | - Kady Francis
- Psychology Department, Health Service Executive Dublin Mid Leinster, Longford, Ireland
| | - John Bogue
- School of Psychology, National University of Ireland Galway, H91 EV56 Galway, Ireland
| | - Mary O'Sullivan
- Suicide Prevention Resource Office, Health Service Executive West, Galway, Ireland
| | - Karen Young
- School of Computer Science, National University of Ireland Galway, Galway, Ireland
| | - Rebecca A Bernert
- Suicide Prevention Research Laboratory, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94305-5717, USA
| | | | - Jim Duggan
- School of Computer Science, National University of Ireland Galway, Galway, Ireland
| |
Collapse
|
29
|
Woodul RL, Delamater PL, Emch M. Hospital surge capacity for an influenza pandemic in the triangle region of North Carolina. Spat Spatiotemporal Epidemiol 2019; 30:100285. [DOI: 10.1016/j.sste.2019.100285] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/01/2018] [Revised: 06/17/2019] [Accepted: 06/20/2019] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
|
30
|
Alessa A, Faezipour M. Flu Outbreak Prediction Using Twitter Posts Classification and Linear Regression With Historical Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Reports: Prediction Framework Study. JMIR Public Health Surveill 2019; 5:e12383. [PMID: 31237567 PMCID: PMC6615001 DOI: 10.2196/12383] [Citation(s) in RCA: 29] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/07/2018] [Revised: 05/22/2019] [Accepted: 05/25/2019] [Indexed: 01/26/2023] Open
Abstract
Background Social networking sites (SNSs) such as Twitter are widely used by diverse demographic populations. The amount of data within SNSs has created an efficient resource for real-time analysis. Thus, data from SNSs can be used effectively to track disease outbreaks and provide necessary warnings. Current SNS-based flu detection and prediction frameworks apply conventional machine learning approaches that require lengthy training and testing, which is not the optimal solution for new outbreaks with new signs and symptoms. Objective The objective of this study was to propose an efficient and accurate framework that uses data from SNSs to track disease outbreaks and provide early warnings, even for newest outbreaks, accurately. Methods We presented a framework of outbreak prediction that included 3 main modules: text classification, mapping, and linear regression for weekly flu rate predictions. The text classification module used the features of sentiment analysis and predefined keyword occurrences. Various classifiers, including FastText (FT) and 6 conventional machine learning algorithms, were evaluated to identify the most efficient and accurate one for the proposed framework. The text classifiers were trained and tested using a prelabeled dataset of flu-related and unrelated Twitter postings. The selected text classifier was then used to classify over 8,400,000 tweet documents. The flu-related documents were then mapped on a weekly basis using a mapping module. Finally, the mapped results were passed together with historical Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data to a linear regression module for weekly flu rate predictions. Results The evaluation of flu tweet classification showed that FT, together with the extracted features, achieved accurate results with an F-measure value of 89.9% in addition to its efficiency. Therefore, FT was chosen to be the classification module to work together with the other modules in the proposed framework, including a regression-based estimator, for flu trend predictions. The estimator was evaluated using several regression models. Regression results show that the linear regression–based estimator achieved the highest accuracy results using the measure of Pearson correlation. Thus, the linear regression model was used for the module of weekly flu rate estimation. The prediction results were compared with the available recent data from CDC as the ground truth and showed a strong correlation of 96.29% . Conclusions The results demonstrated the efficiency and the accuracy of the proposed framework that can be used even for new outbreaks with new signs and symptoms. The classification results demonstrated that the FT-based framework improves the accuracy and the efficiency of flu disease surveillance systems that use unstructured data such as data from SNSs.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Ali Alessa
- Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Bridgeport, Bridgeport, CT, United States.,Institute of Public Administration, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
| | - Miad Faezipour
- Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Bridgeport, Bridgeport, CT, United States.,Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Bridgeport, Bridgeport, CT, United States
| |
Collapse
|
31
|
Kapitány-Fövény M, Ferenci T, Sulyok Z, Kegele J, Richter H, Vályi-Nagy I, Sulyok M. Can Google Trends data improve forecasting of Lyme disease incidence? Zoonoses Public Health 2018; 66:101-107. [PMID: 30447056 DOI: 10.1111/zph.12539] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/10/2018] [Revised: 09/30/2018] [Accepted: 10/21/2018] [Indexed: 01/14/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Online activity-based epidemiological surveillance and forecasting is getting more and more attention. To date, Google search volumes have not been assessed for forecasting of tick-borne diseases. Thus, we performed an analysis of forecasting of the Lyme disease incidence based on the traditional data extended with Google Trends. METHODS Data on the weekly incidence of Lyme disease in Germany from 16 June 2013 to 27 May 2018 were obtained from the database of the Robert Koch Institute. Data of Internet searches were obtained from Google Trends searching "Borreliose" in Germany for the "last 5 years" as a timespan category. Data were split into the training (from 16 June 2013 to 11 June 2017) and validation (from 12 June 2017, to 27 May 2018) data sets. A seasonal autoregressive moving average model, SARIMA (0,1,1) (0,1,1) [52] model was selected to describe the time series of the weekly Lyme incidence. After this, we added the Google Trends data as an external regressor and identified the SARIMA (0,1,1) (0,1,1) [52] model as optimal. We made predictions for the validation interval using these two models and compared predictions with the values of the validation data set. RESULTS Forecasting for the validation timespan resulted in similar values for the models. Comparing the forecasted values with the reported ones resulted in an residual mean squared error (RMSE) of 0.3763; the mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) was 8.233 for the model without Google searches with an RMSE of 0.3732; and the MAPE was 8.17495 for the Google Trends values-expanded model. The difference between the predictive performances was insignificant (Diebold-Mariano Test, p-value = 0.4152). CONCLUSION Google Trends data are a good correlate of the reported incidence of Lyme disease in Germany, but it failed to significantly improve the forecasting accuracy in models based on traditional data.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Máté Kapitány-Fövény
- Faculty of Health Sciences, Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary.,Nyírő Gyula National Institute of Psychiatry and Addictions, Budapest, Hungary
| | - Tamás Ferenci
- John von Neumann Faculty of Informatics, Physiological Controls Group, Óbuda University, Budapest, Hungary
| | - Zita Sulyok
- Institute of Tropical Medicine, Eberhard Karls University, Tübingen, Germany
| | - Josua Kegele
- Department of Neurology and Epileptology, Neurology Clinics, Eberhard Karls University, Tübingen, Germany
| | - Hardy Richter
- Department of Neurology and Stroke, Neurology Clinics, Eberhard Karls University, Tübingen, Germany
| | - István Vályi-Nagy
- South-Pest Central Hospital, National Institute of Hematology and Infectious Diseases, Budapest, Hungary
| | - Mihály Sulyok
- Department of Neurology and Stroke, Neurology Clinics, Eberhard Karls University, Tübingen, Germany
| |
Collapse
|
32
|
Schwab-Reese LM, Hovdestad W, Tonmyr L, Fluke J. The potential use of social media and other internet-related data and communications for child maltreatment surveillance and epidemiological research: Scoping review and recommendations. CHILD ABUSE & NEGLECT 2018; 85:187-201. [PMID: 29366596 PMCID: PMC7112406 DOI: 10.1016/j.chiabu.2018.01.014] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/15/2017] [Revised: 12/06/2017] [Accepted: 01/12/2018] [Indexed: 05/12/2023]
Abstract
Collecting child maltreatment data is a complicated undertaking for many reasons. As a result, there is an interest by child maltreatment researchers to develop methodologies that allow for the triangulation of data sources. To better understand how social media and internet-based technologies could contribute to these approaches, we conducted a scoping review to provide an overview of social media and internet-based methodologies for health research, to report results of evaluation and validation research on these methods, and to highlight studies with potential relevance to child maltreatment research and surveillance. Many approaches were identified in the broad health literature; however, there has been limited application of these approaches to child maltreatment. The most common use was recruiting participants or engaging existing participants using online methods. From the broad health literature, social media and internet-based approaches to surveillance and epidemiologic research appear promising. Many of the approaches are relatively low cost and easy to implement without extensive infrastructure, but there are also a range of limitations for each method. Several methods have a mixed record of validation and sources of error in estimation are not yet understood or predictable. In addition to the problems relevant to other health outcomes, child maltreatment researchers face additional challenges, including the complex ethical issues associated with both internet-based and child maltreatment research. If these issues are adequately addressed, social media and internet-based technologies may be a promising approach to reducing some of the limitations in existing child maltreatment data.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Laura M Schwab-Reese
- The Kempe Center for The Prevention and Treatment of Child Abuse and Neglect, University of Colorado, Anschutz Medical Campus, 13123 E 16th Ave., Aurora, CO 80045, USA.
| | - Wendy Hovdestad
- Public Health Agency of Canada, 785 Carling Ave., Ottawa, ON, K1A 0K9, Canada
| | - Lil Tonmyr
- Public Health Agency of Canada, 785 Carling Ave., Ottawa, ON, K1A 0K9, Canada
| | - John Fluke
- The Kempe Center for The Prevention and Treatment of Child Abuse and Neglect, University of Colorado, Anschutz Medical Campus, 13123 E 16th Ave., Aurora, CO 80045, USA
| |
Collapse
|
33
|
Global Research on Syndromic Surveillance from 1993 to 2017: Bibliometric Analysis and Visualization. SUSTAINABILITY 2018. [DOI: 10.3390/su10103414] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/14/2023]
Abstract
Syndromic Surveillance aims at analyzing medical data to detect clusters of illness or forecast disease outbreaks. Although the research in this field is flourishing in terms of publications, an insight of the global research output has been overlooked. This paper aims at analyzing the global scientific output of the research from 1993 to 2017. To this end, the paper uses bibliometric analysis and visualization to achieve its goal. Particularly, a data processing framework was proposed based on citation datasets collected from Scopus and Clarivate Analytics’ Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC). The bibliometric method and Citespace were used to analyze the institutions, countries, and research areas as well as the current hotspots and trends. The preprocessed dataset includes 14,680 citation records. The analysis uncovered USA, England, Canada, France and Australia as the top five most productive countries publishing about Syndromic Surveillance. On the other hand, at the Pinnacle of academic institutions are the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The reference co-citation analysis uncovered the common research venues and further analysis of the keyword cooccurrence revealed the most trending topics. The findings of this research will help in enriching the field with a comprehensive view of the status and future trends of the research on Syndromic Surveillance.
Collapse
|
34
|
Chang YW, Chiang WL, Wang WH, Lin CY, Hung LC, Tsai YC, Chen YH. Assessing Epidemic Diseases and Public Opinion through Popular Search Behavior Using Non-English Language Google Trends (Preprint). JMIR Public Health Surveill 2018. [DOI: 10.2196/12226] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
|
35
|
Cocco AM, Zordan R, Taylor DM, Weiland TJ, Dilley SJ, Kant J, Dombagolla M, Hendarto A, Lai F, Hutton J. Dr Google in the ED: searching for online health information by adult emergency department patients. Med J Aust 2018; 209:342-347. [DOI: 10.5694/mja17.00889] [Citation(s) in RCA: 52] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/11/2017] [Accepted: 04/06/2018] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Anthony M Cocco
- St Vincentˈs Hospital Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC
- University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC
| | - Rachel Zordan
- St Vincentˈs Hospital Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC
- University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC
| | | | | | | | - Joyce Kant
- University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC
- Eastern Health, Melbourne, VIC
| | - Mahesha Dombagolla
- University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC
- Goulburn Valley Health, Shepparton, VIC
| | - Andreas Hendarto
- University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC
- Bairnsdale Regional Health Service, Bairnsdale, VIC
| | - Fiona Lai
- University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC
- Austin Health, Melbourne, VIC
| | - Jennie Hutton
- St Vincentˈs Hospital Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC
- Emergency Practice Innovation Centre, St Vincentˈs Hospital Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC
| |
Collapse
|
36
|
Kim J, Bae J, Hastak M. Emergency information diffusion on online social media during storm Cindy in U.S. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF INFORMATION MANAGEMENT 2018. [DOI: 10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2018.02.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 89] [Impact Index Per Article: 14.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
|
37
|
Dong X, Boulton ML, Carlson B, Montgomery JP, Wells EV. Syndromic surveillance for influenza in Tianjin, China: 2013-14. J Public Health (Oxf) 2018; 39:274-281. [PMID: 26968483 DOI: 10.1093/pubmed/fdw022] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Background Diverse sources of syndromic surveillance including over-the-counter (OTC) drug sales, hospital and school-based influenza-like illness (ILI) and Baidu search queries estimate influenza activity in Tianjin, China. The purpose of this study was to determine which syndromic surveillance systems had the strongest correlation with laboratory-confirmed influenza activity. Methods Data were obtained from sentinel hospitals and laboratories; sentinel hospitals also reported percentage of ILI. OTC sales and school-based ILI absentee data were provided by public pharmacies and schools. Baidu search queries for influenza surveillance were analyzed. Spearman correlation analysis examined correlations of syndromic systems with laboratory-confirmed data. Results Syndromic data for hospital ILI%, OTC sales and school-based ILI correlated well with laboratory data (r = 0.732, 0.490 and 0.693, respectively; P < 0.05). Baidu, the predominant Chinese Internet service, searches for 'influenza', 'cough' and 'fever' correlated best with laboratory-confirmed activity; queries for 'fever' were strongest (r = 0.924, P < 0.001). Correlations between school-based ILI and laboratory-confirmed influenza increased from 0.693 to 0.795 after a 1-week lag (P < 0.05). Conclusions A Baidu query of 'fever' provided the strongest correlation to laboratory surveillance. School-based ILI absence reporting detected influenza virus activity 1 week earlier than laboratory confirmation. Use of diverse syndromic surveillance systems in conjunction with traditional surveillance systems can improve influenza surveillance.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- X Dong
- Tianjin Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Tianjin, P. R. China
| | - M L Boulton
- Department of Epidemiology, University of Michigan School of Public Health, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
| | - B Carlson
- Department of Epidemiology, University of Michigan School of Public Health, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
| | - J P Montgomery
- Department of Epidemiology, University of Michigan School of Public Health, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
| | - E V Wells
- Department of Epidemiology, University of Michigan School of Public Health, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
| |
Collapse
|
38
|
Abstract
Big Data promises huge benefits for medical research. Looking beyond superficial increases in the amount of data collected, we identify three key areas where Big Data differs from conventional analyses of data samples: (i) data are captured more comprehensively relative to the phenomenon under study; this reduces some bias but surfaces important trade-offs, such as between data quantity and data quality; (ii) data are often analysed using machine learning tools, such as neural networks rather than conventional statistical methods resulting in systems that over time capture insights implicit in data, but remain black boxes, rarely revealing causal connections; and (iii) the purpose of the analyses of data is no longer simply answering existing questions, but hinting at novel ones and generating promising new hypotheses. As a consequence, when performed right, Big Data analyses can accelerate research. Because Big Data approaches differ so fundamentally from small data ones, research structures, processes and mindsets need to adjust. The latent value of data is being reaped through repeated reuse of data, which runs counter to existing practices not only regarding data privacy, but data management more generally. Consequently, we suggest a number of adjustments such as boards reviewing responsible data use, and incentives to facilitate comprehensive data sharing. As data's role changes to a resource of insight, we also need to acknowledge the importance of collecting and making data available as a crucial part of our research endeavours, and reassess our formal processes from career advancement to treatment approval.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
| | - E Ingelsson
- Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, Department of Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA
| |
Collapse
|
39
|
Wang HW, Chen DR. Economic Recession and Obesity-Related Internet Search Behavior in Taiwan: Analysis of Google Trends Data. JMIR Public Health Surveill 2018; 4:e37. [PMID: 29625958 PMCID: PMC5910536 DOI: 10.2196/publichealth.7314] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/12/2017] [Revised: 11/30/2017] [Accepted: 02/12/2018] [Indexed: 01/09/2023] Open
Abstract
Background Obesity is highly correlated with the development of chronic diseases and has become a critical public health issue that must be countered by aggressive action. This study determined whether data from Google Trends could provide insight into trends in obesity-related search behaviors in Taiwan. Objective Using Google Trends, we examined how changes in economic conditions—using business cycle indicators as a proxy—were associated with people’s internet search behaviors related to obesity awareness, health behaviors, and fast food restaurants. Methods Monthly business cycle indicators were obtained from the Taiwan National Development Council. Weekly Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) weighted index data were accessed and downloaded from Yahoo Finance. The weekly relative search volumes (RSV) of obesity-related terms were downloaded from Google Trends. RSVs of obesity-related terms and the TWSE from January 2007 to December 2011 (60 months) were analyzed using correlation analysis. Results During an economic recession, the RSV of obesity awareness and health behaviors declined (r=.441, P<.001; r=.593, P<.001, respectively); however, the RSV for fast food restaurants increased (r=−.437, P<.001). Findings indicated that when the economy was faltering, people tended to be less likely to search for information related to health behaviors and obesity awareness; moreover, they were more likely to search for fast food restaurants. Conclusions Macroeconomic conditions can have an impact on people’s health-related internet searches.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Ho-Wei Wang
- Institute of Health Policy and Management, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Duan-Rung Chen
- Institute of Health Behaviors and Community Sciences, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan
| |
Collapse
|
40
|
The Role of Informal Digital Surveillance Systems Before, During and After Infectious Disease Outbreaks: A Critical Analysis. ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2018. [PMCID: PMC7123634 DOI: 10.1007/978-94-024-1263-5_14] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/27/2022]
|
41
|
Beysard N, Yersin B, Meylan P, Hugli O, Carron PN. Impact of the 2014-2015 influenza season on the activity of an academic emergency department. Intern Emerg Med 2018; 13:251-256. [PMID: 28091839 DOI: 10.1007/s11739-017-1606-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/02/2016] [Accepted: 01/06/2017] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
The morbidity and mortality of the 2014-2015 influenza season were more important than those in previous years. We assessed the impact of the 2014-2015 influenza season on the length of stay (LOS) and workload in an academic emergency department (ED). This is a monocentric retrospective study. The database of the microbiology laboratory was used to identify influenza nasal swabs performed during the influenza seasons from 2010 to 2015. Patients admitted to the ED during these periods were identified through the administrative database and cross-checked with patients who underwent an influenza nasal swab in the ED. Median LOS was used to estimate the impact of the isolation procedures on ED LOS. Bed occupancy rate and mean LOS in the ED were calculated as proxy of the ED workload. During the 2014-2015 influenza season, 55.9% of ED patients (n = 123) with confirmed influenza were hospitalised. In terms of workload, despite that influenza patients represented only 2.2% of all ED patients during the season, they occupied 28% of ED beds with respiratory isolation during the delay to realise and obtain the test results, as well as during the delay before being discharged home or transferred to a hospital ward. The median ED LOS for influenza-confirmed patients was significantly longer in comparison with all ED patients (21.6 h vs 4.0 for ambulatory patients and 24.7 h vs 12.3 for hospitalised patients). The 2014-2015 influenza season had significant consequences in terms of ED LOS and bed use. It dramatically increased the workload in the ED.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Nicolas Beysard
- Emergency Department, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois, rue du Bugnon 46, 1011, Lausanne, Switzerland.
| | - Bertrand Yersin
- Emergency Department, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois, rue du Bugnon 46, 1011, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Pascal Meylan
- Institute of Microbiology, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois, rue du Bugnon 46, 1011, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Olivier Hugli
- Emergency Department, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois, rue du Bugnon 46, 1011, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Pierre-Nicolas Carron
- Emergency Department, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois, rue du Bugnon 46, 1011, Lausanne, Switzerland
| |
Collapse
|
42
|
Alessa A, Faezipour M. A review of influenza detection and prediction through social networking sites. Theor Biol Med Model 2018; 15:2. [PMID: 29386017 PMCID: PMC5793414 DOI: 10.1186/s12976-017-0074-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 48] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/24/2017] [Accepted: 12/06/2017] [Indexed: 02/02/2023] Open
Abstract
Early prediction of seasonal epidemics such as influenza may reduce their impact in daily lives. Nowadays, the web can be used for surveillance of diseases. Search engines and social networking sites can be used to track trends of different diseases seven to ten days faster than government agencies such as Center of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). CDC uses the Illness-Like Influenza Surveillance Network (ILINet), which is a program used to monitor Influenza-Like Illness (ILI) sent by thousands of health care providers in order to detect influenza outbreaks. It is a reliable tool, however, it is slow and expensive. For that reason, many studies aim to develop methods that do real time analysis to track ILI using social networking sites. Social media data such as Twitter can be used to predict the spread of flu in the population and can help in getting early warnings. Today, social networking sites (SNS) are used widely by many people to share thoughts and even health status. Therefore, SNS provides an efficient resource for disease surveillance and a good way to communicate to prevent disease outbreaks. The goal of this study is to review existing alternative solutions that track flu outbreak in real time using social networking sites and web blogs. Many studies have shown that social networking sites can be used to conduct real time analysis for better predictions.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Ali Alessa
- Department of Computer Science and Engineering, School of Engineering, University of Bridgeport, 221 University Avenue, Bridgeport, 06604 CT USA
| | - Miad Faezipour
- Department of Computer Science and Engineering, School of Engineering, University of Bridgeport, 221 University Avenue, Bridgeport, 06604 CT USA
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, School of Engineering, University of Bridgeport, 221 University Avenue, Bridgeport, 06604 CT USA
| |
Collapse
|
43
|
Bouzillé G, Poirier C, Campillo-Gimenez B, Aubert ML, Chabot M, Chazard E, Lavenu A, Cuggia M. Leveraging hospital big data to monitor flu epidemics. COMPUTER METHODS AND PROGRAMS IN BIOMEDICINE 2018; 154:153-160. [PMID: 29249339 DOI: 10.1016/j.cmpb.2017.11.012] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/10/2017] [Revised: 10/04/2017] [Accepted: 11/14/2017] [Indexed: 05/14/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE Influenza epidemics are a major public health concern and require a costly and time-consuming surveillance system at different geographical scales. The main challenge is being able to predict epidemics. Besides traditional surveillance systems, such as the French Sentinel network, several studies proposed prediction models based on internet-user activity. Here, we assessed the potential of hospital big data to monitor influenza epidemics. METHODS We used the clinical data warehouse of the Academic Hospital of Rennes (France) and then built different queries to retrieve relevant information from electronic health records to gather weekly influenza-like illness activity. RESULTS We found that the query most highly correlated with Sentinel network estimates was based on emergency reports concerning discharged patients with a final diagnosis of influenza (Pearson's correlation coefficient (PCC) of 0.931). The other tested queries were based on structured data (ICD-10 codes of influenza in Diagnosis-related Groups, and influenza PCR tests) and performed best (PCC of 0.981 and 0.953, respectively) during the flu season 2014-15. This suggests that both ICD-10 codes and PCR results are associated with severe epidemics. Finally, our approach allowed us to obtain additional patients' characteristics, such as the sex ratio or age groups, comparable with those from the Sentinel network. CONCLUSIONS Conclusions: Hospital big data seem to have a great potential for monitoring influenza epidemics in near real-time. Such a method could constitute a complementary tool to standard surveillance systems by providing additional characteristics on the concerned population or by providing information earlier. This system could also be easily extended to other diseases with possible activity changes. Additional work is needed to assess the real efficacy of predictive models based on hospital big data to predict flu epidemics.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Guillaume Bouzillé
- INSERM, U1099, Rennes, F-35000, France; Université de Rennes 1, LTSI, Rennes, F-35000, France; CHU Rennes, CIC Inserm 1414, Rennes, F-35000, France; CHU Rennes, Centre de Données Cliniques, Rennes, F-35000, France.
| | - Canelle Poirier
- INSERM, U1099, Rennes, F-35000, France; Université de Rennes 1, LTSI, Rennes, F-35000, France; Université de Rennes 2, IRMAR, Rennes, F-35000, France
| | - Boris Campillo-Gimenez
- INSERM, U1099, Rennes, F-35000, France; Université de Rennes 1, LTSI, Rennes, F-35000, France
| | | | | | - Emmanuel Chazard
- Département de Santé Publique, Université de Lille EA 2694, CHU Lille, F-59000 Lille, France
| | - Audrey Lavenu
- CHU Rennes, CIC Inserm 1414, Rennes, F-35000, France; Université Rennes 1, Rennes, F-35000, France
| | - Marc Cuggia
- INSERM, U1099, Rennes, F-35000, France; Université de Rennes 1, LTSI, Rennes, F-35000, France; CHU Rennes, CIC Inserm 1414, Rennes, F-35000, France; CHU Rennes, Centre de Données Cliniques, Rennes, F-35000, France
| |
Collapse
|
44
|
A Component-Based Approach for Securing Indoor Home Care Applications. SENSORS 2017; 18:s18010046. [PMID: 29278370 PMCID: PMC5796285 DOI: 10.3390/s18010046] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/31/2017] [Revised: 12/05/2017] [Accepted: 12/18/2017] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
eHealth systems have adopted recent advances on sensing technologies together with advances in information and communication technologies (ICT) in order to provide people-centered services that improve the quality of life of an increasingly elderly population. As these eHealth services are founded on the acquisition and processing of sensitive data (e.g., personal details, diagnosis, treatments and medical history), any security threat would damage the public’s confidence in them. This paper proposes a solution for the design and runtime management of indoor eHealth applications with security requirements. The proposal allows applications definition customized to patient particularities, including the early detection of health deterioration and suitable reaction (events) as well as security needs. At runtime, security support is twofold. A secured component-based platform supervises applications execution and provides events management, whilst the security of the communications among application components is also guaranteed. Additionally, the proposed event management scheme adopts the fog computing paradigm to enable local event related data storage and processing, thus saving communication bandwidth when communicating with the cloud. As a proof of concept, this proposal has been validated through the monitoring of the health status in diabetic patients at a nursing home.
Collapse
|
45
|
Samaras L, García-Barriocanal E, Sicilia MA. Syndromic Surveillance Models Using Web Data: The Case of Influenza in Greece and Italy Using Google Trends. JMIR Public Health Surveill 2017; 3:e90. [PMID: 29158208 PMCID: PMC5715201 DOI: 10.2196/publichealth.8015] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/10/2017] [Revised: 08/23/2017] [Accepted: 09/10/2017] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND An extended discussion and research has been performed in recent years using data collected through search queries submitted via the Internet. It has been shown that the overall activity on the Internet is related to the number of cases of an infectious disease outbreak. OBJECTIVE The aim of the study was to define a similar correlation between data from Google Trends and data collected by the official authorities of Greece and Europe by examining the development and the spread of seasonal influenza in Greece and Italy. METHODS We used multiple regressions of the terms submitted in the Google search engine related to influenza for the period from 2011 to 2012 in Greece and Italy (sample data for 104 weeks for each country). We then used the autoregressive integrated moving average statistical model to determine the correlation between the Google search data and the real influenza cases confirmed by the aforementioned authorities. Two methods were used: (1) a flu score was created for the case of Greece and (2) comparison of data from a neighboring country of Greece, which is Italy. RESULTS The results showed that there is a significant correlation that can help the prediction of the spread and the peak of the seasonal influenza using data from Google searches. The correlation for Greece for 2011 and 2012 was .909 and .831, respectively, and correlation for Italy for 2011 and 2012 was .979 and .933, respectively. The prediction of the peak was quite precise, providing a forecast before it arrives to population. CONCLUSIONS We can create an Internet surveillance system based on Google searches to track influenza in Greece and Italy.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Loukas Samaras
- Computer Science Department, University of Alcalá, Alcalá de Henares (Madrid), Spain
| | | | - Miguel-Angel Sicilia
- Computer Science Department, University of Alcalá, Alcalá de Henares (Madrid), Spain
| |
Collapse
|
46
|
National Utilization and Forecasting of Ototopical Antibiotics: Medicaid Data Versus "Dr. Google". Otol Neurotol 2017; 37:1049-54. [PMID: 27348390 DOI: 10.1097/mao.0000000000001115] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVES To forecast national Medicaid prescription volumes for common ototopical antibiotics, and correlate prescription volumes with internet user search interest using Google Trends (GT). STUDY DESIGN National United States Medicaid prescription and GT user search database analysis. METHODS Quarterly national Medicaid summary drug utilization data and weekly GT search engine data for ciprofloxacin-dexamethasone (CD), ofloxacin (OF), and Cortisporin (CS) ototopicals were obtained from January 2008 to July 2014. Time series analysis was used to assess prescription seasonality, Holt-Winter's method for forecasting quarterly prescription volumes, and Pearson correlations to compare GT and Medicaid data. RESULTS Medicaid prescription volumes demonstrated sinusoidal seasonality for OF (r = 0.91), CS (r = 0.71), and CD (r = 0.62) with annual peaks in July, August, and September. In 2017, OF was forecasted to be the most widely prescribed ototopical, followed by CD. CS was the least prescribed, and volumes were forecasted to decrease 9.0% by 2017 from 2014. GT user search interest demonstrated analogous sinusoidal seasonality and significant correlations with Medicaid data prescriptions for CD (r = 0.38, p = 0.046), OF (r = 0.74, p < 0.001), CS (r = 0.49, p = 0.008). CONCLUSION We found that OF, CD, and CS ototopicals have sinusoidal seasonal variation with Medicaid prescription volume peaks occurring in the summer. After 2012, OF was the most commonly prescribed ototopical, and this trend was forecasted to continue. CS use was forecasted to decrease. Google user search interest in these ototopical agents demonstrated analogous seasonal variation. Analyses of GT for interest in ototopical antibiotics may be useful for health care providers and administrators as a complementary method for assessing healthcare utilization trends.
Collapse
|
47
|
Modeling and Forecasting Influenza-like Illness (ILI) in Houston, Texas Using Three Surveillance Data Capture Mechanisms. Online J Public Health Inform 2017; 9:e187. [PMID: 29026453 DOI: 10.5210/ojphi.v9i2.8004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Objective The objective was to forecast and validate prediction estimates of influenza activity in Houston, TX using four years of historical influenza-like illness (ILI) from three surveillance data capture mechanisms. Background Using novel surveillance methods and historical data to estimate future trends of influenza-like illness can lead to early detection of influenza activity increases and decreases. Anticipating surges gives public health professionals more time to prepare and increase prevention efforts. Methods Data was obtained from three surveillance systems, Flu Near You, ILINet, and hospital emergency center (EC) visits, with diverse data capture mechanisms. Autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) models were fitted to data from each source for week 27 of 2012 through week 26 of 2016 and used to forecast influenza-like activity for the subsequent 10 weeks. Estimates were then compared to actual ILI percentages for the same period. Results Forecasted estimates had wide confidence intervals that crossed zero. The forecasted trend direction differed by data source, resulting in lack of consensus about future influenza activity. ILINet forecasted estimates and actual percentages had the least differences. ILINet performed best when forecasting influenza activity in Houston, TX. Conclusion Though the three forecasted estimates did not agree on the trend directions, and thus, were considered imprecise predictors of long-term ILI activity based on existing data, pooling predictions and careful interpretations may be helpful for short term intervention efforts. Further work is needed to improve forecast accuracy considering the promise forecasting holds for seasonal influenza prevention and control, and pandemic preparedness.
Collapse
|
48
|
Tran US, Andel R, Niederkrotenthaler T, Till B, Ajdacic-Gross V, Voracek M. Low validity of Google Trends for behavioral forecasting of national suicide rates. PLoS One 2017; 12:e0183149. [PMID: 28813490 PMCID: PMC5558943 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0183149] [Citation(s) in RCA: 55] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/21/2016] [Accepted: 07/30/2017] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Recent research suggests that search volumes of the most popular search engine worldwide, Google, provided via Google Trends, could be associated with national suicide rates in the USA, UK, and some Asian countries. However, search volumes have mostly been studied in an ad hoc fashion, without controls for spurious associations. This study evaluated the validity and utility of Google Trends search volumes for behavioral forecasting of suicide rates in the USA, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Suicide-related search terms were systematically collected and respective Google Trends search volumes evaluated for availability. Time spans covered 2004 to 2010 (USA, Switzerland) and 2004 to 2012 (Germany, Austria). Temporal associations of search volumes and suicide rates were investigated with time-series analyses that rigorously controlled for spurious associations. The number and reliability of analyzable search volume data increased with country size. Search volumes showed various temporal associations with suicide rates. However, associations differed both across and within countries and mostly followed no discernable patterns. The total number of significant associations roughly matched the number of expected Type I errors. These results suggest that the validity of Google Trends search volumes for behavioral forecasting of national suicide rates is low. The utility and validity of search volumes for the forecasting of suicide rates depend on two key assumptions ("the population that conducts searches consists mostly of individuals with suicidal ideation", "suicide-related search behavior is strongly linked with suicidal behavior"). We discuss strands of evidence that these two assumptions are likely not met. Implications for future research with Google Trends in the context of suicide research are also discussed.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Ulrich S. Tran
- Department of Basic Psychological Research and Research Methods, School of Psychology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
- Wiener Werkstaette for Suicide Research, Vienna, Austria
| | - Rita Andel
- Department of Basic Psychological Research and Research Methods, School of Psychology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
- Wiener Werkstaette for Suicide Research, Vienna, Austria
| | - Thomas Niederkrotenthaler
- Wiener Werkstaette for Suicide Research, Vienna, Austria
- Suicide Research Unit, Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, Center for Public Health, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
| | - Benedikt Till
- Wiener Werkstaette for Suicide Research, Vienna, Austria
- Suicide Research Unit, Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, Center for Public Health, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
| | | | - Martin Voracek
- Department of Basic Psychological Research and Research Methods, School of Psychology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
- Wiener Werkstaette for Suicide Research, Vienna, Austria
| |
Collapse
|
49
|
Muscatello DJ, Bein KJ, Dinh MM. Influenza-associated delays in patient throughput and premature patient departure in emergency departments in New South Wales, Australia: A time series analysis. Emerg Med Australas 2017; 30:77-80. [PMID: 28544364 DOI: 10.1111/1742-6723.12808] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/31/2017] [Revised: 03/28/2017] [Accepted: 04/13/2017] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVES Influenza outbreaks cause overcrowding in EDs. We aimed to quantify the impact of influenza on the National Emergency Access Targets and premature patient departure in New South Wales, Australia. METHODS This was a retrospective observational study of 11 million presentations to 115 hospitals during 2010-2014, using routinely collected administrative records. A time series generalised additive regression model was used to assess the correlation between weekly influenza activity and the weekly proportion of patients leaving the ED in >4 h and the proportion that departed before commencing or completing treatment ('did not wait'), after controlling for background winter and holiday effects. RESULTS During 2011-2014, peak annual circulating influenza was associated with the peak weekly proportion of presentations that left in >4 h. The maximum estimated absolute weekly change in that proportion was 3.88 (95% confidence interval 3.02-4.74) percentage points in 2014. For presentations that did not wait, influenza circulation was associated with statistically significant increases in all years, with a maximum weekly value of 2.68 (95% confidence interval 2.31-3.06) percentage points in 2012. CONCLUSIONS Circulating influenza was associated with sustained increases and peaks in delayed patient throughput and premature patient departures. Influenza surveillance information may assist with development of health system and hospital workforce planning and bed management activities.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- David J Muscatello
- School of Public Health and Community Medicine, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Kendall J Bein
- Emergency Department, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Michael M Dinh
- Emergency Department, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.,Discipline of Emergency Medicine, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
| |
Collapse
|
50
|
Deiner MS, Lietman TM, McLeod SD, Chodosh J, Porco TC. Surveillance Tools Emerging From Search Engines and Social Media Data for Determining Eye Disease Patterns. JAMA Ophthalmol 2017; 134:1024-30. [PMID: 27416554 DOI: 10.1001/jamaophthalmol.2016.2267] [Citation(s) in RCA: 49] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/14/2022]
Abstract
IMPORTANCE Internet-based search engine and social media data may provide a novel complementary source for better understanding the epidemiologic factors of infectious eye diseases, which could better inform eye health care and disease prevention. OBJECTIVE To assess whether data from internet-based social media and search engines are associated with objective clinic-based diagnoses of conjunctivitis. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS Data from encounters of 4143 patients diagnosed with conjunctivitis from June 3, 2012, to April 26, 2014, at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) Medical Center, were analyzed using Spearman rank correlation of each weekly observation to compare demographics and seasonality of nonallergic conjunctivitis with allergic conjunctivitis. Data for patient encounters with diagnoses for glaucoma and influenza were also obtained for the same period and compared with conjunctivitis. Temporal patterns of Twitter and Google web search data, geolocated to the United States and associated with these clinical diagnoses, were compared with the clinical encounters. The a priori hypothesis was that weekly internet-based searches and social media posts about conjunctivitis may reflect the true weekly clinical occurrence of conjunctivitis. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES Weekly total clinical diagnoses at UCSF of nonallergic conjunctivitis, allergic conjunctivitis, glaucoma, and influenza were compared using Spearman rank correlation with equivalent weekly data on Tweets related to disease or disease-related keyword searches obtained from Google Trends. RESULTS Seasonality of clinical diagnoses of nonallergic conjunctivitis among the 4143 patients (2364 females [57.1%] and 1776 males [42.9%]) with 5816 conjunctivitis encounters at UCSF correlated strongly with results of Google searches in the United States for the term pink eye (ρ, 0.68 [95% CI, 0.52 to 0.78]; P < .001) and correlated moderately with Twitter results about pink eye (ρ, 0.38 [95% CI, 0.16 to 0.56]; P < .001) and with clinical diagnosis of influenza (ρ, 0.33 [95% CI, 0.12 to 0.49]; P < .001), but did not significantly correlate with seasonality of clinical diagnoses of allergic conjunctivitis diagnosis at UCSF (ρ, 0.21 [95% CI, -0.02 to 0.42]; P = .06) or with results of Google searches in the United States for the term eye allergy (ρ, 0.13 [95% CI, -0.06 to 0.32]; P = .19). Seasonality of clinical diagnoses of allergic conjunctivitis at UCSF correlated strongly with results of Google searches in the United States for the term eye allergy (ρ, 0.44 [95% CI, 0.24 to 0.60]; P < .001) and eye drops (ρ, 0.47 [95% CI, 0.27 to 0.62]; P < .001). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE Internet-based search engine and social media data may reflect the occurrence of clinically diagnosed conjunctivitis, suggesting that these data sources can be leveraged to better understand the epidemiologic factors of conjunctivitis.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Michael S Deiner
- Department of Ophthalmology, University of California San Francisco
| | - Thomas M Lietman
- Department of Ophthalmology, University of California San Francisco2F. I. Proctor Foundation, University of California San Francisco3Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of California San Francisco4Global Health Sciences, University of California San Francisco
| | - Stephen D McLeod
- Department of Ophthalmology, University of California San Francisco2F. I. Proctor Foundation, University of California San Francisco
| | - James Chodosh
- Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, Department of Ophthalmology, Harvard Medical School, Boston
| | - Travis C Porco
- Department of Ophthalmology, University of California San Francisco2F. I. Proctor Foundation, University of California San Francisco3Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of California San Francisco
| |
Collapse
|