Association of COVID-19-imposed lockdown and online searches for toothache in Iran.
BMC Oral Health
; 21(1): 69, 2021 02 15.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1085165
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
Novel coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) has impacted populations in many ways worldwide, including access to oral health services. This study aims to assess the association between lockdown due to COVID-19 and online searches for toothache in Iran using Google Trends (GT).METHODS:
We investigated GT online searches for toothache within the past five years. The time frame for data gathering was considered as the initiation and end dates of the national lockdown in Iran. We performed one-way ANOVA statistical test to compare relative search volumes (RSVs) between the year 2020 and 2016-2019 for the whole country. Then we investigated the possible association of RSVs in provinces with dentists' density, prevalence of current daily smokers, Human Development Index (HDI), Internet access, and fluoride concentration in water using linear regression.RESULTS:
When comparing 2020 with the previous four years, there was a rise of 2020 RSVs versus all previous years combined and each year (P < 0.001 for all of them). In the linear model for the year 2020, HDI (B = - 3.29, 95% CI (- 5.80, - 0.78), P = 0.012) had a strong negative relationship with provincial RSVs. HDI mostly had strong positive relationship with provincial RSVs in prior years. Fluoride concentration (B = - 0.13, 95% CI (- 0.24, - 0.03), P = 0.017) and dentists' density (B = - 0.04, 95% CI (- 0.25, 0.17), P = 0.669) were also negatively associated with RSVs in 2020. These associations were mostly negative in the previous years as well. Internet access (B = 0.36, 95% CI (- 0.38, 1.09), P = 0.325) and prevalence of daily smokers (B = 0.33, 95% CI (0.13, 0.53), P = 0.002) were positively associated with RSVs.CONCLUSION:
The RSVs for toothache in 2020 have increased due to COVID-19-imposed lockdown compared with the same period in the past four years. This increase was related to socioeconomic factors.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Toothache
/
COVID-19
Type of study:
Observational study
Limits:
Humans
Country/Region as subject:
Asia
Language:
English
Journal:
BMC Oral Health
Journal subject:
Dentistry
Year:
2021
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
S12903-021-01428-z
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