Investigating the Prevalence of Reactive Online Searching in the COVID-19 Pandemic: Infoveillance Study.
Investigating the Prevalence of Reactive Online Searching in the COVID-19 Pandemic: Infoveillance Study.
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DOI：
10.2196/19791
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发表时间：
2020-10-27
影响因子：
7.4
通讯作者：
Lloyd-Evans E
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Badell-Grau RA;Cuff JP;Kelly BP;Waller-Evans H;Lloyd-Evans E
持续的大流行给全球社会、医疗保健、政府和大众媒体带来了前所未有的压力。在 COVID-19 大流行期间，政府政策、医疗干预措施和错误信息的公开传播速度非常快，而且基本上不受监管，导致误解、沟通不畅和公众恐慌增加。作为数字时代首个全面的全球流行病，COVID-19 给政府建议、新闻和错误信息的传播、科学的可及性与公众过早使用未经证实的医疗干预措施之间的权衡带来了新的挑战。 本研究旨在评估全球大流行期间与 COVID-19 信息和错误信息相关的互联网搜索词的使用情况，确定哪些在六个受影响国家中使用最多，调查关键搜索词的任何时间趋势和可能的传播者，并确定这六个国家中每个国家采用这些搜索词时人均病例数和死亡人数之间的相关性。本研究使用从 Google 趋势中提取的与 COVID-19 大流行相关的搜索词的相对搜索量数据，以及从欧洲开放数据门户中提取的人均病例和死亡率数据，以确定全球大流行期间六个受影响国家（澳大利亚、德国、意大利、西班牙、英国和美国）新闻和错误信息传播的时间动态。进行了相关分析，以确定搜索词使用的时间趋势与人均死亡率和疾病病例的上升之间的相关性。在选定的搜索词中，大多数是在政府、公众人物推广或信息病毒式传播后立即搜索的，但也与科学资源的出版有关，这些资源有时在进一步传播之前被误解。这些与 COVID-19 相关的搜索词的数量（总体平均 Spearman rho 0.753，SD 0.158）与人均死亡率（平均人均死亡 Spearman rho 0.690，SD 0.168）和病例数（平均人均病例 Spearman rho 0.800，SD 0.112）之间存在很强的相关性。这些发现表明，在全球医疗保健危机期间，公众消费新信息的速度和数量有所增加。死亡率和在线搜索之间的正相关性，特别是在 COVID-19 检测率较低的国家，可能表明保护这些国家的官方通信和消除错误信息的必要性。在线新闻、政府简报和社交媒体为大流行期间向公众传播重要信息提供了强大的工具，但应监控、尽量减少和解决其滥用和歪曲医疗信息的问题，以维护公共安全。最终，政府、公共卫生当局和科学家在道义上有责任维护真相并与公众保持畅通无阻的对话以限制恐惧。
The ongoing pandemic has placed an unprecedented strain on global society, health care, governments, and mass media. Public dissemination of government policies, medical interventions, and misinformation has been remarkably rapid and largely unregulated during the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in increased misinterpretations, miscommunication, and public panic. Being the first full-scale global pandemic of the digital age, COVID-19 has presented novel challenges pertinent to government advice, the spread of news and misinformation, and the trade-off between the accessibility of science and the premature public use of unproven medical interventions. This study aims to assess the use of internet search terms relating to COVID-19 information and misinformation during the global pandemic, identify which were most used in six affected countries, investigate any temporal trends and the likely propagators of key search terms, and determine any correlation between the per capita cases and deaths with the adoption of these search terms in each of the six countries. This study uses relative search volume data extracted from Google Trends for search terms linked to the COVID-19 pandemic alongside per capita case and mortality data extracted from the European Open Data Portal to identify the temporal dynamics of the spread of news and misinformation during the global pandemic in six affected countries (Australia, Germany, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States). A correlation analysis was carried out to ascertain any correlation between the temporal trends of search term use and the rise of per capita mortality and disease cases. Of the selected search terms, most were searched immediately following promotion by governments, public figures, or viral circulation of information, but also in relation to the publication of scientific resources, which were sometimes misinterpreted before further dissemination. Strong correlations were identified between the volume of these COVID-19–related search terms (overall mean Spearman rho 0.753, SD 0.158), and per capita mortality (mean per capita deaths Spearman rho 0.690, SD 0.168) and cases (mean per capita cases Spearman rho 0.800, SD 0.112). These findings illustrate the increased rate and volume of the public consumption of novel information during a global health care crisis. The positive correlation between mortality and online searching, particularly in countries with lower COVID-19 testing rates, may demonstrate the imperative to safeguard official communications and dispel misinformation in these countries. Online news, government briefings, and social media provide a powerful tool for the dissemination of important information to the public during pandemics, but their misuse and the presentation of misrepresented medical information should be monitored, minimized, and addressed to safeguard public safety. Ultimately, governments, public health authorities, and scientists have a moral imperative to safeguard the truth and maintain an accessible discourse with the public to limit fear.