Universidad Nacional de San Agustín de Arequipa, Arequipa, Perú.
Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, Lima, Perú.
Cad Saude Publica. 2021 Oct 29;37(10):e00270720. doi: 10.1590/0102-311X00270720. eCollection 2021.
Infodemiology has been widely used to assess epidemics. In light of the recent pandemic, we use Google Search data to explore online interest about COVID-19 and related topics in 20 countries of Latin America and the Caribbean. Data from Google Trends from December 12, 2019, to April 25, 2020, regarding COVID-19 and other related topics were retrieved and correlated with official data on COVID-19 cases and with national epidemiological indicators. The Latin American and Caribbean countries with the most interest for COVID-19 were Peru (100%) and Panama (98.39%). No correlation was found between this interest and national epidemiological indicators. The global and local response time were 20.2 ± 1.2 days and 16.7 ± 15 days, respectively. The duration of public attention was 64.8 ± 12.5 days. The most popular topics related to COVID-19 were: the country's situation (100 ± 0) and coronavirus symptoms (36.82 ± 16.16). Most countries showed a strong or moderated (r = 0.72) significant correlation between searches related to COVID-19 and daily new cases. In addition, the highest significant lag correlation was found on day 13.35 ± 5.76 (r = 0.79). Interest shown by Latin American and Caribbean countries for COVID-19 was high. The degree of online interest in a country does not clearly reflect the magnitude of their epidemiological indicators. The response time and the lag correlation were greater than in European and Asian countries. Less interest was found for preventive measures. Strong correlation between searches for COVID-19 and daily new cases suggests a predictive utility.
传染病学已广泛用于评估传染病。鉴于最近的大流行，我们使用谷歌搜索数据来探索拉丁美洲和加勒比地区 20 个国家对 COVID-19 及相关主题的在线兴趣。从 2019 年 12 月 12 日至 2020 年 4 月 25 日，从谷歌趋势中检索到有关 COVID-19 和其他相关主题的数据，并与 COVID-19 病例的官方数据和国家流行病学指标相关联。对 COVID-19 最感兴趣的拉丁美洲和加勒比国家是秘鲁（100%）和巴拿马（98.39%）。这种兴趣与国家流行病学指标之间没有相关性。全球和本地响应时间分别为 20.2 ± 1.2 天和 16.7 ± 15 天。公众关注度持续时间为 64.8 ± 12.5 天。与 COVID-19 相关的最热门话题是：国家形势（100 ± 0）和冠状病毒症状（36.82 ± 16.16）。大多数国家显示出与 COVID-19 相关的搜索与每日新增病例之间存在强烈或适度（r = 0.72）的显著相关性。此外，发现最高的显著滞后相关性是在第 13.35 ± 5.76 天（r = 0.79）。拉丁美洲和加勒比国家对 COVID-19 的兴趣很高。一个国家的在线兴趣程度并不能清楚地反映其流行病学指标的大小。响应时间和滞后相关性大于欧洲和亚洲国家。对预防措施的兴趣较低。COVID-19 搜索与每日新增病例之间的强烈相关性表明具有预测效用。
