ABSTRACT
Web technologies, such as search engines and social media, have provided an opportunity for the management of user generated data in real time. Through the analysis of these web-based data, people can understand the health issues of concern, which can be used for the prediction of the epidemic of infectious diseases and the monitoring of chronic non-communicable diseases. The emergence of Infodemiology, also known as Information Epidemiology, aims to study the occurrence, distribution and influencing factors of health information from electronic medium, so as to raise awareness of disease and health problems among people, and provide the basis for the formulation of disease prevention and control strategies. This review summarizes the research progress in Infodemiology.