Universität Hamburg, Faculty of Informatics, Mathematics & Natural Sciences; University of Essex, Health Department.
J Prev Med Hyg. 2022 Dec 31;63(4):E579-E597. doi: 10.15167/2421-4248/jpmh2022.63.4.2736. eCollection 2022 Dec.
Climate change, the resulting geographical expansion of arthropod disease vectors, and increasing international mobility are contributing to the emergence of arboviral diseases in Europe. Public interest in vector-borne diseases and a subsequent gain of awareness and knowledge are essential to control outbreaks but had not yet been systematically assessed prior to this analysis.
Trends, patterns, and determinants of public interest in six emerging and re-emerging arboviral diseases were assessed in a spatio-temporal analysis of Google Trends data from 30 European countries between 2008 and 2020 while controlling for potential confounders.
Only public interest in endemic arboviral diseases in Europe displays seasonal patterns and has been increasing since 2008, while no significant patterns or trends could be determined for public interest in non-endemic diseases. The main drivers for public interest in all six analysed arboviral diseases are reported case rates, and public interest drops rapidly as soon as cases decline. For Germany, the correlation of public interest and the geographical distribution of locally-acquired reported cases of endemic arboviral infections could be shown on a sub-country level.
The results of the analysis indicate that public interest in arboviral diseases in Europe is heavily impacted by perceived susceptibility on a temporal as well as on a spatial level. This result may be crucial for the design of future public health interventions to alert the public to the increasing risk of infection with arboviral diseases.
气候变化、节肢动物病媒的地理扩张以及国际间流动性的增加，都促成了虫媒病毒病在欧洲的出现。公众对虫媒病的关注以及随之而来的意识和知识的提高对于控制疫情的爆发至关重要，但在此分析之前，这些因素尚未得到系统评估。
本研究通过对 2008 年至 2020 年 30 个欧洲国家的谷歌趋势数据进行时空分析，评估了六种新发和再发虫媒病毒病的公众关注度的趋势、模式和决定因素，同时控制了潜在的混杂因素。
只有欧洲地方性虫媒病毒病的公众关注度显示出季节性模式，且自 2008 年以来一直在增加，而对于非地方性疾病，没有确定显著的模式或趋势。所有六种分析的虫媒病毒病的公众关注度的主要驱动因素是报告的病例率，一旦病例下降，公众关注度就会迅速下降。对于德国，在次国家级水平上可以显示出公众关注度与本地获得的地方性虫媒病毒感染报告病例的地理分布之间的相关性。
分析结果表明，欧洲公众对虫媒病毒病的关注度在时间和空间上都受到感知易感性的强烈影响。这一结果对于设计未来的公共卫生干预措施以提醒公众感染虫媒病毒病的风险增加可能至关重要。
