Determining the interest in pain and analgesic during and before the covid-19 pandemic period using google trends data: an infodemiological study

Abstract

Background: The aim of this study is to evaluate the public's interest in pain and painkillers using Google search activity in countries with the most cases before and during the COVID-19 pandemic (January 2018 - December 2021). Methods: United States (USA), England, France, Germany, Italy, India, Spain, Russia, Brazil and Turkey, which are the countries where the Covid 19 epidemic was most intense, were determined along with the world for the analysis. The words of "Back pain", "Chest pain", "Headache", "Knee pain", "Sore throat", "Aspirin", "Ibufren" and "Paracetamol" were written into the Google Trend search engine. RapidMiner Analysis program and Microsoft Excel program were used in the statistical analysis of the data. Correlation tests were used to determine the strength of the relationship between pain regions and drugs. Results: The terms fo "ibuprofen", "aspirin", "paracetamol" peaked in Google searches on March 15, 2020. The search frequencies of the terms of sore throat, chest pain, and headache peaked worldwide between March 15, 2020 and March 22, 2020. The strong correlations were obtained, ranging from 0.627 to 0.901 for chest pain and headache terms, and 0.629 to 0.749 for ibuprofen and paracetamol terms. Conclusion: As a result of the research, it is seen that the frequency of searching for pain and analgesics has increased significantly during the COVID-19 period. Our data can be considered as an indicative of the increasing incidence of pain with the COVID-19 pandemic, since internet searches are a proxy for the public good.

Keywords

• Pain
• Analgesic
• Covid 19
• Google trends

Google trend verilerini kullanarak covid-19 pandemi döneminde ve öncesinde ağrı ve analjeziklere olan ilginin belirlenmesi: infodemiyolojik bir çalışma

Abstract

Giriş: Bu çalışmanın amacı, COVID-19 pandemisi öncesinde ve sırasında (Ocak 2018 - Aralık 2021) en çok vaka görülen ülkelerde Google arama etkinliğini kullanarak halkın ağrı ve ağrı kesicilere olan ilgisini değerlendirmektir. Yöntem: Dünya geneli ile Covid 19 salgınının en yoğun olduğu ülkeler olan Amerika Birleşik Devletleri (ABD), İngiltere, Fransa, Almanya, İtalya, Hindistan, İspanya, Rusya, Brezilya ve Türkiye belirlendi. Google Trend arama motoruna "Sırt ağrısı", "Göğüs ağrısı", "Baş ağrısı", "Diz ağrısı", "Boğaz ağrısı", "Aspirin", "İbuprofen" ve "Parasetamol" kelimeleri yazıldı. Verilerin istatistiksel analizinde RapidMiner Analiz programı ve Microsoft Excel programı kullanılmıştır. Ağrı bölgeleri ile ilaçlar arasındaki ilişkinin gücünü belirlemek için korelasyon testleri kullanıldı. Bulgular: “İbuprofen”, “aspirin”, “parasetamol” terimleri 15 Mart 2020'de Google aramalarında zirveye ulaştı. “Boğaz ağrısı”, “göğüs ağrısı” ve “baş ağrısı” terimlerinin arama sıklığı 15 Mart 2020 ile 22 Mart 2020 arasında dünya çapında zirveye ulaştı. Göğüs ağrısı ve baş ağrısı terimleri için 0,627- 0,901 ile ibuprofen ve parasetamol terimleri için 0,629- 0,749 arasında değişen güçlü korelasyonlar elde edildi. Sonuç: Araştırma sonucundaCOVID-19 döneminde dünya genelinde ağrı ve analjezik arama sıklığının önemli ölçüde arttığı görülmektedir. İnternet aramaları kamu yararı için bir vekil olduğundan, verilerimiz COVID-19 pandemisi ile artan ağrı insidansının bir göstergesi olarak kabul edilebilir.

Keywords

• Ağrı
• Aneljezik
• Covid 19
• Google Trend

References

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