Menachemi Nir, Rahurkar Saurabh, Rahurkar Mandar
Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public HealthHealth Policy and ManagementIndiana University-IUPUIIndianapolis, INUnited States.
Regenstrief InstituteCenter for Biomedical InformaticsIndianapolis, INUnited States.
JMIR Public Health Surveill. 2017 Mar 23;3(1):e12. doi: 10.2196/publichealth.6033.
Internet search is the most common activity on the World Wide Web and generates a vast amount of user-reported data regarding their information-seeking preferences and behavior. Although this data has been successfully used to examine outbreaks, health care utilization, and outcomes related to quality of care, its value in informing public health policy remains unclear.
The aim of this study was to evaluate the role of Internet search query data in health policy development. To do so, we studied the public's reaction to a major societal event in the context of the 2012 Sandy Hook School shooting incident.
Query data from the Yahoo! search engine regarding firearm-related searches was analyzed to examine changes in user-selected search terms and subsequent websites visited for a period of 14 days before and after the shooting incident.
A total of 5,653,588 firearm-related search queries were analyzed. In the after period, queries increased for search terms related to "guns" (+50.06%), "shooting incident" (+333.71%), "ammunition" (+155.14%), and "gun-related laws" (+535.47%). The highest increase (+1054.37%) in Web traffic was seen by news websites following "shooting incident" queries whereas searches for "guns" (+61.02%) and "ammunition" (+173.15%) resulted in notable increases in visits to retail websites. Firearm-related queries generally returned to baseline levels after approximately 10 days.
Search engine queries present a viable infodemiology metric on public reactions and subsequent behaviors to major societal events and could be used by policymakers to inform policy development.
互联网搜索是万维网上最常见的活动，会生成大量用户报告的数据，涉及他们的信息寻求偏好和行为。尽管这些数据已成功用于研究疫情爆发、医疗保健利用以及与医疗质量相关的结果，但其在为公共卫生政策提供信息方面的价值仍不明确。
本研究的目的是评估互联网搜索查询数据在卫生政策制定中的作用。为此，我们在2012年桑迪胡克小学枪击事件的背景下，研究了公众对这一重大社会事件的反应。
分析来自雅虎搜索引擎的与枪支相关的搜索查询数据，以检查枪击事件前后14天内用户选择的搜索词和随后访问的网站的变化。
共分析了5,653,588条与枪支相关的搜索查询。在事件发生后，与“枪支”（+50.06%）、“枪击事件”（+333.71%）、“弹药”（+155.14%）和“枪支相关法律”（+535.47%）相关的搜索词查询有所增加。在搜索“枪击事件”后，新闻网站的网络流量增长最高（+1054.37%），而搜索“枪支”（+61.02%）和“弹药”（+173.15%）导致零售网站的访问量显著增加。与枪支相关的查询通常在大约10天后恢复到基线水平。
搜索引擎查询提供了一种可行的信息传播指标，可用于衡量公众对重大社会事件的反应及后续行为，政策制定者可利用这些指标为政策制定提供信息。
