Impact of COVID-19 on interest in hepato-pancreato-biliary diseases.
Environ Sci Pollut Res Int
; 29(4): 5771-5776, 2022 Jan.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1368514
ABSTRACT
An important gap of knowledge exists regarding the public interest in hepato-pancreato-biliary (HPB) diseases during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. We aimed to understand the public interest in HPB diseases in the COVID-19 era. In this infodemiology study, we performed a comparative analysis of Google search volume of HPB terms in 2020-2021 and compared it to a similar time frame (2016-2019) in 3 periods to assess how trends in patient seeking behavior of HPB terms changed during the course of the pandemic in the USA and worldwide. Our analysis showed a substantial decrease in search volume of HPB diseases and procedure terms early in the pandemic. However, search volumes appeared to revert back to pre-pandemic years closer to the 1-year mark in USA and worldwide. Patients may have initially neglected HPB-related issues during the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, which could lead to worse outcomes. While HPB-related terms reverted closer to pre-pandemic levels later in the pandemic, further research is needed to assess the long-term impacts.
Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
COVID-19
Type of study:
Experimental Studies
/
Prognostic study
Limits:
Humans
Language:
English
Journal:
Environ Sci Pollut Res Int
Journal subject:
Environmental Health
/
Toxicology
Year:
2022
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
S11356-021-16063-y
Similar
MEDLINE
...
LILACS
LIS