Chiu Alice P Y, Lin Qianying, He Daihai
Department of Applied Mathematics, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong SAR, China.
PLoS One. 2017 Sep 18;12(9):e0185004. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0185004. eCollection 2017.
The HIV epidemic in Hong Kong has worsened in recent years, with major contributions from high-risk subgroup of men who have sex with men (MSM). Internet use is prevalent among the majority of the local population, where they sought health information online. This study examines the impacts of HIV/AIDS and MSM news coverage on web search query in Hong Kong.
Relevant news coverage about HIV/AIDS and MSM from January 1st, 2004 to December 31st, 2014 was obtained from the WiseNews databse. News trends were created by computing the number of relevant articles by type, topic, place of origin and sub-populations. We then obtained relevant search volumes from Google and analysed causality between news trends and Google Trends using Granger Causality test and orthogonal impulse function.
We found that editorial news has an impact on "HIV" Google searches on HIV, with the search term popularity peaking at an average of two weeks after the news are published. Similarly, editorial news has an impact on the frequency of "AIDS" searches two weeks after. MSM-related news trends have a more fluctuating impact on "MSM" Google searches, although the time lag varies anywhere from one week later to ten weeks later.
This infodemiological study shows that there is a positive impact of news trends on the online search behavior of HIV/AIDS or MSM-related issues for up to ten weeks after. Health promotional professionals could make use of this brief time window to tailor the timing of HIV awareness campaigns and public health interventions to maximise its reach and effectiveness.
近年来，香港的艾滋病疫情有所恶化，主要原因是男男性行为者（MSM）这一高危亚群体。互联网在当地大多数人口中广泛使用，他们在网上寻求健康信息。本研究考察了香港艾滋病病毒/艾滋病和男男性行为者新闻报道对网络搜索查询的影响。
从WiseNews数据库获取2004年1月1日至2014年12月31日期间有关艾滋病病毒/艾滋病和男男性行为者的相关新闻报道。通过按类型、主题、来源地和亚群体计算相关文章数量来创建新闻趋势。然后我们从谷歌获取相关搜索量，并使用格兰杰因果检验和正交脉冲函数分析新闻趋势与谷歌趋势之间的因果关系。
我们发现编辑新闻对谷歌上关于艾滋病病毒的“HIV”搜索有影响，搜索词热度在新闻发布后平均两周达到峰值。同样，编辑新闻在两周后对“AIDS”搜索频率有影响。与男男性行为者相关的新闻趋势对谷歌上“MSM”搜索的影响波动更大，尽管时间滞后从一周到十周不等。
这项信息流行病学研究表明，新闻趋势对艾滋病病毒/艾滋病或男男性行为者相关问题的在线搜索行为在长达十周内有积极影响。健康促进专业人员可以利用这个短暂的时间窗口来调整艾滋病意识宣传活动和公共卫生干预措施的时间安排，以最大限度地扩大其覆盖面和效果。
