Shen Tony S, Chen Aaron Z, Bovonratwet Patawut, Shen Carol L, Su Edwin P
Hospital for Special Surgery, New York, NY, United States.
Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, NY, United States.
J Med Internet Res. 2020 Nov 23;22(11):e22407. doi: 10.2196/22407.
The internet is a well-known source of information that patients use to better inform their opinions and to guide their conversations with physicians during clinic visits. The novelty of the recent COVID-19 outbreak has led patients to turn more frequently to the internet to gather more information and to alleviate their concerns about the virus.
The aims of the study were to (1) determine the most commonly searched phrases related to COVID-19 in the United States and (2) identify the sources of information for these web searches.
Search terms related to COVID-19 were entered into Google. Questions and websites from Google web search were extracted to a database using customized software. Each question was categorized into one of 6 topics: clinical signs and symptoms, treatment, transmission, cleaning methods, activity modification, and policy. Additionally, the websites were categorized according to source: World Health Organization (WHO), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), non-CDC government, academic, news, and other media.
In total, 200 questions and websites were extracted. The most common question topic was transmission (n=63, 31.5%), followed by clinical signs and symptoms (n=54, 27.0%) and activity modification (n=31, 15.5%). Notably, the clinical signs and symptoms category captured questions about myths associated with the disease, such as whether consuming alcohol stops the coronavirus. The most common websites provided were maintained by the CDC, the WHO, and academic medical organizations. Collectively, these three sources accounted for 84.0% (n=168) of the websites in our sample.
In the United States, the most commonly searched topics related to COVID-19 were transmission, clinical signs and symptoms, and activity modification. Reassuringly, a sizable majority of internet sources provided were from major health organizations or from academic medical institutions.
互联网是患者熟知的信息来源，患者借助它在门诊就诊时更好地形成自己的观点，并指导与医生的交流。近期新冠疫情的新奇性促使患者更频繁地转向互联网，以收集更多信息并缓解对该病毒的担忧。
本研究的目的是（1）确定美国与新冠病毒相关的最常见搜索短语，以及（2）识别这些网络搜索的信息来源。
将与新冠病毒相关的搜索词输入谷歌。使用定制软件将谷歌网络搜索中的问题和网站提取到一个数据库中。每个问题被归类到6个主题之一：临床体征和症状、治疗、传播、清洁方法、活动调整和政策。此外，网站根据来源进行分类：世界卫生组织（WHO）、疾病控制与预防中心（CDC）、非CDC政府机构、学术机构、新闻媒体和其他媒体。
总共提取了200个问题和网站。最常见的问题主题是传播（n = 63，31.5%），其次是临床体征和症状（n = 54，27.0%）以及活动调整（n = 31，15.5%）。值得注意的是，临床体征和症状类别包含了与该疾病相关的谣言问题，比如饮酒是否能阻止冠状病毒。提供最多的网站由CDC、WHO和学术医学组织维护。总体而言，这三个来源占我们样本中网站的84.0%（n = 168）。
在美国，与新冠病毒相关的最常见搜索主题是传播、临床体征和症状以及活动调整。令人安心的是，绝大多数网络信息来源是主要的卫生组织或学术医疗机构。
