Abstract
BackgroundThe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has been linked to a myriad of cardiac symptoms and disorders. Reports also suggest decreased hospital visits by patients with known cardiovascular disorders.MethodologyTo better elucidate the public interest in the information regarding “chest pain” during the COVID-19 pandemic, we conducted a Google Trends analysis from March 2019 to March 2021 to compare the internet searches between pre-COVID era and during the pandemic with country-wise [the United States (US) versus the United Kingdom (UK) versus India] variation.ResultsWe observed a significantly rising public interest in “chest pain” internet searches during the peak COVID-19 pandemic. Rising trends were most prominent in the UK, followed by USA and India. Our analysis noted a spike in the trend of “chest pain” search in early March in the UK and USA, whereas in March and June 2020 for India. This shows an important temporal association between the surge of COVID-19 cases and the search for “chest pain” online.ConclusionGoogle Trends analyses indicate rising public interest in chest pain during the pandemic months and the possible association between COVID-19 and chest pain. These findings warrant further research, especially with increasing reports suggesting contradictory reports of decreased hospital visits by patients with known cardiovascular diseases.
Highlights
According to the World Health Organization, the current coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has infected around 116 million people and has led to approximately 2.6 million deaths worldwide
Our analysis noted a spike in the trend of “chest pain” search in early March in the United Kingdom (UK) and USA, whereas in March and June 2020 for India
To better elucidate the public interest in the information on “chest pain” during the COVID-19 pandemic, we conducted a Google Trends search to analyze the internet searches for “chest pain” during March 2019 and March 2021 in the United States (US), United Kingdom (UK), and India where the burden of COVID-19 cases was substantially high throughout the pandemic period
Summary
According to the World Health Organization, the current coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has infected around 116 million people and has led to approximately 2.6 million deaths worldwide. These patients present with a myriad of cardiopulmonary symptoms with chest pain taking the lead. It is a known fact that cardiac symptoms like chest pain have a seasonal surge pattern, peaking around spring and winter [3]. The current COVID-19 pandemic started in the winter months of 2019 which is the peak season for patients presenting with cardiac and pulmonary symptoms. Reports suggest decreased hospital visits by patients with known cardiovascular disorders
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