ENT & Audiology Unit, University Hospital of Ferrara, Ferrara, Italy.
Eur Rev Med Pharmacol Sci. 2021 Oct;25(20):6431-6438. doi: 10.26355/eurrev_202110_27017.
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection can cause smell and taste dysfunction. We aimed to investigate the general community's interest in smell dysfunction (SD) and taste dysfunction (TD) using Google Trends to compare results with more common symptoms associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection, such as fever and cough.
Relative Search Volumes (RSVs) for the English terms "Smell", "Taste", "Fever" and "Cough", filtered by the category "Health", were collected from 2018 through 2020. Moreover, RSVs using synonyms of "Taste" and "Smell" in 5 European languages were analyzed.
The worldwide mean RSVs for "Fever", "Cough", "Smell", and "Taste" during 2020 were 49%, 34%, 8% and 9%, respectively. RSVs associated with the search terms "Fever" and "Cough" showed a peak between February and March 2020, as did "Smell" and "Taste". Even though RSVs were much lower, they were highly correlated (r=0.890). RSVs obtained from "Smell" and "Taste" in five European languages (German, English, French, Italian and Spanish) had similar temporal trends.
Our findings show the level of the general population's interest for early symptoms, suggesting that their interest in SARS-CoV-2 infection symptoms, such as SD and TD, was scarce but peaked during the pandemic outbreak.
严重急性呼吸综合征冠状病毒 2（SARS-CoV-2）感染可引起嗅觉和味觉障碍。我们旨在使用谷歌趋势调查普通人群对嗅觉障碍（SD）和味觉障碍（TD）的兴趣，将结果与与 SARS-CoV-2 感染相关的更常见症状（如发热和咳嗽）进行比较。
从 2018 年至 2020 年，收集了英文术语“Smell”、“Taste”、“Fever”和“Cough”在“Health”类别下的相对搜索量（RSV）。此外，还分析了 5 种欧洲语言中“Taste”和“Smell”同义词的 RSV。
2020 年全球“Fever”、“Cough”、“Smell”和“Taste”的平均 RSV 分别为 49%、34%、8%和 9%。与搜索词“Fever”和“Cough”相关的 RSV 峰值出现在 2020 年 2 月至 3 月之间，“Smell”和“Taste”也是如此。尽管 RSV 低得多，但它们高度相关（r=0.890）。从德语、英语、法语、意大利语和西班牙语 5 种欧洲语言中获得的“Smell”和“Taste”的 RSV 具有相似的时间趋势。
我们的研究结果表明普通人群对早期症状的关注程度，表明他们对 SARS-CoV-2 感染症状（如 SD 和 TD）的兴趣有限，但在疫情爆发期间达到高峰。
