Department of Surgery, Dentistry, Paediatrics and Gynaecology-Unit of Otorhinolaryngology, University of Verona, Verona, Italy.
Clinical Laboratory, Division of Nephrology and Hypertension, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH, USA.
Diagnosis (Berl). 2022 Aug 18;9(4):485-490. doi: 10.1515/dx-2022-0084. eCollection 2022 Nov 1.
SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2) structure and host tropism have changed over time, and so has the involvement of throat structures. This infodemiological analysis is hence aimed at investigating the evolution of throat symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic in the US.
We searched Google Trends using the medical search terms "ageusia", "hoarseness", "dysphonia", "pharyngitis" and "laryngitis", setting geographical location to "United States", within the past 5 years. The weekly Google Trends score for these symptoms, which reflects their national Web popularity, was divided in three parts, as "pre-COVID" (July 2017 to February 2020), COVID-19 "pre-Omicron" (March 2020 to November 2021), and COVID-19 "Omicron" (December 2021 to July 2022), and then compared.
The volume of searches for ageusia increased in the pre-Omicron period and remained significantly higher also during Omicron prevalence, though a significant decrease (∼30%) occurred with Omicron lineages compared to previous strains. The Google searches for hoarseness and dysphonia were relatively similar between the pre-COVID and pre-Omicron periods, but then significantly increased during Omicron predominance. The Google searches for pharyngitis and laryngitis decreased in the pre-Omicron period, but then considerably increased following Omicron emergence. Omicron endemic spread could be significantly and independently predicted by the volume of searches for pharyngitis, laryngitis and hoarseness.
The epidemiological burden of throat symptoms has considerably changed after Omicron emergence, with a lower likelihood of developing chemosensory dysfunctions and enhanced risk of throat involvement.
SARS-CoV-2（严重急性呼吸系统综合征冠状病毒 2）的结构和宿主嗜性随时间发生了变化，喉咙结构的受累情况也是如此。因此，本信息流行病学分析旨在研究美国 COVID-19 大流行期间喉咙症状的演变。
我们使用“味觉丧失”、“声音嘶哑”、“发音困难”、“咽炎”和“喉炎”等医学搜索词，在过去 5 年内，通过 Google Trends 在“美国”进行搜索。这些症状的每周 Google Trends 评分（反映其全国网络受欢迎程度）分为三个部分：“新冠前”（2017 年 7 月至 2020 年 2 月）、“新冠-Omicron 前”（2020 年 3 月至 2021 年 11 月）和“新冠-Omicron”（2021 年 12 月至 2022 年 7 月），然后进行比较。
味觉丧失的搜索量在 Omicron 前时期增加，并在 Omicron 流行期间仍保持显著升高，尽管与之前的毒株相比，Omicron 谱系的搜索量下降了约 30%。声音嘶哑和发音困难的 Google 搜索在新冠前和新冠前时期较为相似，但在 Omicron 流行期间显著增加。咽炎和喉炎的 Google 搜索量在新冠前时期下降，但在 Omicron 出现后大幅增加。Omicron 流行期间，咽炎、喉炎和声音嘶哑的搜索量可以显著且独立地预测。
Omicron 出现后，喉咙症状的流行病学负担发生了相当大的变化，化学感觉功能障碍的发生可能性降低，喉咙受累的风险增加。
