Public interest in drug‑related problems reflected in information search trends: an infodemiological study

Abstract

Background The analysis of how people search and “navigate” the internet to obtain health-related information and how they communicate and share this information can provide valuable knowledge about the disease patterns behaviour and health habits of populations. Objective To determine the population’s interest in drug-related problems through information search trends. Method A descriptive ecological correlational study, based on obtaining Google Trends data. Variables studied: relative search volume (RSV), evolution over time, milestones and seasonality. Results The most searched topic was drug overdose, with mean RSV of 56.25 ± 0.65. The highest increase occurred in the contraindication topic ( R2 = 0.87, p < 0.001). The main milestone was observed in the drug overdose topic in July 2018 (RSV = 100). A very close relationship was found between adverse drug reaction and contraindication (R = 0.89, p < 0.001). Slight seasonality was noted in the adverse drug reaction (augmented Dickey–Fuller test [ADF] = −1.96), contraindication (ADF = −2.66) and drug interaction (ADF = −1.67) topics, but did not show an epidemiological trend. Conclusions The greatest public interest was found in the drug overdose and contraindication topics, which showed a stronger upward trend, although the seasonality study did not show any very notable data or demonstrate epidemiological information search behaviour. The main milestone observed was due to media factors related to the consumption of narcotics. There was a clear difference in English-speaking countries in the use of the drug overdose topic. A correlation between the adverse drug reaction and contraindication topics was confirmed.