Raubenheimer Jacques Eugene, Myburgh Pieter Hermanus, Bhagavathula Akshaya Srikanth
Faculty of Medicine and Health, Sydney Pharmacy School, The University of Sydney, Room 107, A26 (R C Mills bldg.) Science Rd, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
Institute for Intelligent Systems, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa.
BMC Glob Public Health. 2024 Sep 17;2(1):63. doi: 10.1186/s44263-024-00095-w.
Off-label use of semaglutide for non-diabetic weight loss (which regulators have linked to social media promotion) created worldwide supply shortages. We evaluated worldwide semaglutide interest measured by online search behavior to gauge social media and conventional print media reporting's effect on search interest.
Using Google Trends Extended for Health (GTEH) multiple sampling, we retrieved regional online interest (ROI) for all countries and extracted timelines and top search queries for January 2021-August 2023 for countries with median ROI ≥ 20 using the "semaglutide" topic. We obtained semaglutide media reporting from the ProQuest database. We estimated the effect of media and within-country semaglutide interest on between-country interest with Granger causality analysis. We determined changepoints for trends within each country with joinpoint regression. We determined prominent themes in search queries for each country with natural language processing thematic analysis.
Twenty-seven countries were included. Most countries showed an increase in semaglutide interest over time, with Canada and the USA showing the largest sustained interest. Most of the search interest arose from 2022 onwards. Granger's analysis showed that media coverage could only partially explain interest, and interest in some countries partially preceded interest in others, with the UK and Germany showing strong relationships between news reports and lagged search interest. Joinpoint analysis identified up to four significant within-country changepoints. Most countries showed significant positive weekly trends in 2021-2022, although uptrends in search interest varied considerably between countries. One episode of the Dr. Oz show (TV media event) coincided with strong peaks in numerous countries. Natural language processing of top search queries showed some agreement between countries and country-specific themes. Weight loss was a major theme in most countries, while a diabetes theme was generally absent or weak. Some countries (Australia, Chile, South Africa, UK) had themes for buying Ozempic from (named) local retailers, and Germany had a theme related to buying Ozempic without a script.
GTEH data provided insights into global search interest in semaglutide and regional variation. Studies focusing on specific countries which include social media data can elucidate specific drivers behind the surge in off-label use of semaglutide.
司美格鲁肽用于非糖尿病患者减肥的超说明书用药（监管机构认为这与社交媒体推广有关）导致全球供应短缺。我们通过在线搜索行为评估了全球对司美格鲁肽的关注度，以衡量社交媒体和传统印刷媒体报道对搜索兴趣的影响。
使用谷歌健康趋势扩展版（GTEH）多次抽样，我们检索了所有国家的区域在线兴趣（ROI），并使用“司美格鲁肽”主题提取了2021年1月至2023年8月期间ROI中位数≥20的国家的时间线和热门搜索查询。我们从ProQuest数据库获取了司美格鲁肽的媒体报道。我们用格兰杰因果分析估计了媒体和国内司美格鲁肽兴趣对国家间兴趣的影响。我们用连接点回归确定了每个国家趋势的变化点。我们用自然语言处理主题分析确定了每个国家搜索查询中的突出主题。
纳入了27个国家。大多数国家对司美格鲁肽的兴趣随时间增加，加拿大和美国表现出最大的持续兴趣。大多数搜索兴趣从2022年开始出现。格兰杰分析表明，媒体报道只能部分解释兴趣，一些国家的兴趣部分先于其他国家，英国和德国的新闻报道与滞后的搜索兴趣之间存在很强的关系。连接点分析确定了每个国家内多达四个显著的变化点。大多数国家在2021 - 2022年显示出显著的每周正趋势，尽管各国搜索兴趣的上升趋势差异很大。奥兹医生秀（电视媒体事件）的一集与许多国家的强烈峰值同时出现。热门搜索查询的自然语言处理显示各国之间有一些一致性以及特定国家的主题。减肥是大多数国家的一个主要主题，而糖尿病主题通常不存在或较弱。一些国家（澳大利亚、智利、南非、英国）有从（指定的）当地零售商购买奥泽米皮克的主题，德国有一个与无处方购买奥泽米皮克相关的主题。
GTEH数据提供了对全球司美格鲁肽搜索兴趣及区域差异的见解。关注特定国家并纳入社交媒体数据的研究可以阐明司美格鲁肽超说明书用药激增背后的具体驱动因素。
