Determining the nutritional immunity information-seeking behaviour during the COVID-19 pandemic in India: a Google Trends data analysis
Authors
Savitesh Kushwaha
Department of Community Medicine & School of Public Health, Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh
160012, India
Poonam Khanna
Department of Community Medicine & School of Public Health, Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh
160012, India
Rachita Jain
Department of Community Medicine & School of Public Health, Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh
160012, India
Rachana Srivastava
Department of Community Medicine & School of Public Health, Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh
160012, India
Keywords:
Behaviour, COVID-19, Google Trends, Immunity, Nutrition
Abstract
Objective:
During COVID-19, the Internet was a prime source for getting relevant updates on guidelines and desirable information. The objective of the present study was to determine the nutritional immunity information-seeking behaviour during COVID-19 in India.
Design:
Google Trends (GTs) data on relevant COVID-19 and nutritional topics were systematically selected and retrieved. Data on newly reported COVID-19 cases were also examined on a daily basis. The cross-correlation method was used to determine the correlation coefficient between the selected terms and daily new COVID-19 cases, and the joinpoint regression models were utilised to measure monthly percent change (MPC) in relative search volumes (RSV).
Setting:
Online.
Participants:
People using Google search during the period 1 January 2020–31 August 2020 in India.
Results:
The date of peak searches can be attributed to the COVID-19 guidelines announcement dates. All the nutritional terms showed a significant increase in average monthly percentage change. The higher than the average daily rise in COVID-19 cases leads to a higher than average increase in RSV of nutritional terms with the greatest association after 14–27 d. The highest mean relative search volume for nutritional terms was from Southern India (49·34 ± 7·43), and the lowest was from Western India (31·10 ± 6·30).
Conclusion:
There was a significant rise in the Google searches of nutritional immunity topics during COVID-19 in India. The local/regional terms can be considered for better outreach of public health guidelines or recommendations. Further automation of Google Trends using programming languages can help in real-time monitoring and planning various health/nutritional events.
Keywords: Behaviour, COVID-19, Google Trends, Immunity, Nutrition
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