Laypeople's activity for seeking telephone number of EMS before and during the COVID-19 outbreak: An analysis of web search data.
Am J Emerg Med
; 53: 1-5, 2022 03.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1588529
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE:
To explore trends and patterns of laypeople's activity for seeking telephone number of emergency medical services (EMS) based on analysis of online search traffic, including changes of the search activity with onset of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak, in five countries - the United States of America (USA), India, Brazil, the United Kingdom (UK) and Russia.METHODS:
Google Trends (GT) country-level data on weekly relative search volumes (RSV) for top queries to seek EMS number were examined for January 2018-October 2021, including a comparison of RSVs between pre-COVID-19 period (January 2018-October 2019) and COVID-19 period (January 2020-October 2021), and evaluation of temporal associations of RSVs with weekly numbers of new COVID-19 cases.RESULTS:
The countries demonstrated diverse patterns of the search activity with significantly different mean RSVs (the USA 1.76, India 10.20, Brazil 2.51, the UK 6.42, Russia 56.79; p < 0.001). For all countries excepting the USA mean RSVs of the COVID-19 period were significantly higher compared with the pre-COVID-19 ones (India +74%, Brazil +148%, the UK +22%, Russia +9%; p ≤ 0.034), and exhibited positive correlations with numbers of new COVID-19 cases, more pronounced for 2021 (India rS = 0.538, Brazil 0.307, the UK 0.434, Russia 0.639; p ≤ 0.045).CONCLUSION:
Laypeople's activity for seeking EMS telephone number greatly varies between countries. It clearly responds to the spread of COVID-19 and could be reflective of public need for obtaining emergency help. Further studies are required to establish the role of GT for conducting real-time surveillance of population demand for EMS.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Hotlines
/
Emergency Medical Services
/
Information Seeking Behavior
/
COVID-19
Type of study:
Experimental Studies
Limits:
Humans
Country/Region as subject:
North America
/
South America
/
Asia
/
Brazil
/
Europa
Language:
English
Journal:
Am J Emerg Med
Year:
2022
Document Type:
Article
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