Department of Internal Medicine, Westchester Medical Center, Valhalla, NY, USA.
Department of Gastroenterology, George Washington University School of Medicine & Health Science, Washington, DC, USA.
Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2022 Nov;29(52):79041-79052. doi: 10.1007/s11356-022-21173-2. Epub 2022 Jun 15.
There has been a disparity in familiarity regarding the public interest in gastroenterology terminologies during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aimed to understand the outcomes of the public's view on gastrointestinal topics and their potential social effects. This study is a comparative analysis of American Google Trends gastrointestinal terminology during the COVID-19 pandemic compared to a similar time frame (March 2018-February 2020) to determine how trends in the patient-seeking behavior of gastrointestinal terminology changed throughout the pandemic. The analysis discovered a substantial decrease in search volumes of gastrointestinal topics, more significantly in the first pandemic months. Later in the pandemic, search volumes trended toward pre-pandemic years in terms of public interest. In the case of gastrointestinal procedures, endoscopy and colonoscopies, they surpassed pre-pandemic interest levels statistically (p-values of 0.01 and 0.002). The public's decreased interest in gastrointestinal topics at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic may have adverse effects on the healthcare maintenance of patients who could have had a positive outcome in their gastrointestinal health with proper monitoring. Although gastrointestinal internet searches increased toward pre-pandemic levels as the seasons progressed, further research is needed to determine the social impact of decreased public interest.
在 COVID-19 大流行期间，公众对胃肠病学术语的熟悉程度存在差异。本研究旨在了解公众对胃肠道主题的看法及其潜在的社会影响。本研究是对 COVID-19 大流行期间美国谷歌趋势胃肠病学术语与类似时间段（2018 年 3 月至 2020 年 2 月）进行的比较分析，以确定整个大流行期间胃肠病学术语患者寻求行为的趋势如何变化。分析发现，胃肠道主题的搜索量大幅下降，在大流行的头几个月更为显著。在大流行后期，从公众兴趣的角度来看，搜索量呈现出向大流行前年份的趋势。就胃肠程序而言，内窥镜检查和结肠镜检查的数量在统计学上超过了大流行前的水平（p 值分别为 0.01 和 0.002）。在 COVID-19 大流行开始时，公众对胃肠道主题的兴趣降低，可能会对那些本可以通过适当监测改善胃肠道健康并获得积极结果的患者的医疗保健维护产生不利影响。尽管随着季节的推移，胃肠道互联网搜索量逐渐恢复到大流行前的水平，但仍需要进一步研究以确定公众兴趣降低的社会影响。
