An infodemiological study using search engine query data to explore the temporal variations of depression in Finland

Jonas Tana

doi:10.23996/fjhw.60778

Abstract

A majority of healthcare is undertaken by individuals without the involvement or knowledge of healthcare professionals. People often try to treat health problems themselves, often first consulting the Internet, with search engines as natural starting points. Health information seeking conducted in search engines generate big data, data that can provide valuable insights into patterns of symptoms and disease, especially for stigmatizing or sensitive health topics, like mental health problems. The aim of this article is to utilize search engine query data for trends and temporal variations of depression in Finland. The key findings of this study show that depression related Internet search query volumes are slightly increasing during the time periods studied. The results also show that search query volumes follow seasonal patterns with peaks during autumn and spring and troughs during the summer months and mid-winter. Of all weekdays, Sundays have the highest search volume for depression related queries. These results present new meaningful insights into the epidemiology of depression, as it can give insights into the part of the population that does not present for treatment or professional help. It can also help health professionals and other officials to understand broader patterns of mental illness when planning services and campaigns.

Highlights

The developments in information and communication technology (ICT) in the last decade have led to an emerging behaviour in regards to health behaviour [1]
As figure 1 shows, the term masennus has a higher relative search volumes (RSV) compared to the other four search terms. This is consistent for all three different time periods, and shows that masennus is the most sought query term of the five terms included in this study
It shows a slight increase in search volume since a trough in 2007

Summary

Introduction

The developments in information and communication technology (ICT) in the last decade have led to an emerging behaviour in regards to health behaviour [1]. Because of the easy accessibility, the Internet has become a primary and critical tool when it comes to health related behaviour. Health information seeking is common everyday behaviour, and millions of people surf the Internet every day seeking information ranging from health promotional activities to symptoms, diagnoses and treatments [2,3]. It is estimated that between 70-90% of healthcare is undertaken by individuals without the involvement of healthcare professionals, suggesting that before people seek treatment from healthcare professionals they will try to treat the problems themselves, often first consulting the Internet [46]. The Internet provides a possibility for anonymity, and is a less invasive or stigmatizing way of finding information about sensitive health topics, like mental health problems [8,9,10]. The most popular search engine in the world, Google, which in Finland had a mar-

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion