Clinical Predictors of SARS-CoV-2 Testing Pressure on Clinical Laboratories: A Multinational Study Analyzing Google Trends and Over 100 Million Diagnostic Tests.
Lab Med
; 52(4): 311-314, 2021 Jul 01.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1135871
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE:
Evidence has shown that Google searches for clinical symptom keywords correlates with the number of new weekly patients with COVID-19. This multinational study assessed whether demand for SARS-CoV-2 tests could also be predicted by Google searches for key COVID-19 symptoms.METHODS:
The weekly number of SARS-CoV-2 tests performed in Italy and the United States was retrieved from official sources. A concomitant electronic search was performed in Google Trends, using terms for key COVID-19 symptoms.RESULTS:
The model that provided the highest coefficient of determination for the United States (R2 = 82.8%) included a combination of searching for cough (with a time lag of 2 weeks), fever (with a time lag of 2 weeks), and headache (with a time lag of 3 weeks; the time lag refers to the amount of time between when a search was conducted and when a test was administered). In Italy, headache provided the model with the highest adjusted R2 (86.8%), with time lags of both 1 and 2 weeks.CONCLUSION:
Weekly monitoring of Google Trends scores for nonspecific COVID-19 symptoms is a reliable approach for anticipating SARS-CoV-2 testing demands ~2 weeks in the future.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Search Engine
/
Clinical Laboratory Services
/
COVID-19 Testing
/
COVID-19
Type of study:
Diagnostic study
/
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
Limits:
Humans
Language:
English
Journal:
Lab Med
Year:
2021
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Labmed
Similar
MEDLINE
...
LILACS
LIS