Analyzing Public Interest in Metabolic Health-Related Search Terms During COVID-19 Using Google Trends.

Daniel McGoldrick,Alec D McCarthy

doi:10.7759/cureus.15715

Abstract

BackgroundIn late 2019, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) emerged as a novel virus and initiated a series of events that culminated in the global coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Throughout 2020 and the first half of 2021, massive investigational efforts towards identifying, treating, preventing, and slowing the spread of COVID-19 were carried out. Several predictors for clinical outcomes relating to metabolic health were identified.Aim and methodsThis study aimed to investigate how public interest in search terms associated with metabolic health has changed throughout and during the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. Google Trends was utilized as a tool to gather and compare public interest data in a variety of search phrases. The relative search values were plotted over time, compared pre-and post-COVID-19, analyzed for correlation, assessed for trend directionality, and checked for trend inclusion.ResultsThe public interest measured by relative search volume in “metabolic health,” “exercise,” “home exercise," “health,” and “how to improve fitness” significantly increased from pre- to post-COVID-19 pandemic onset while “diet” and “fitness” significantly decreased. The search terms “COVID” and “coronavirus” made up more than 95% of screen queries incorporating COVID-19. During the COVID-19 pandemic, “diabetes” and “weight loss” had the most significant increases in search volume.ConclusionsGiven the changes in public interest observed throughout the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is clear that the association between metabolic health and COVID-19 is being successfully disseminated to the public. However, these changes also warrant increased public education surrounding diet and fitness to align public interest with measures proven to improve the clinical outcomes of COVID-19.

Highlights

In late 2019, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) emerged as a fast-spreading virus that has, to date, infected more than 125 million people and contributed to the death of more than 2.7 million people globally and resulted in the global coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic [1]
This study aimed to investigate how public interest in search terms associated with metabolic health has changed throughout and during the course of the COVID-19 pandemic
The public interest measured by relative search volume in “metabolic health,” “exercise,” “home exercise," “health,” and “how to improve fitness” significantly increased from pre- to post-COVID-19 pandemic onset while “diet” and “fitness” significantly decreased

Summary

Introduction

In late 2019, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) emerged as a fast-spreading virus that has, to date, infected more than 125 million people and contributed to the death of more than 2.7 million people globally and resulted in the global coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic [1]. Other conditions that might be at an increased risk of severe illness from COVID-19, according to the CDC, include asthma (moderate-to-severe), cerebrovascular disease, cystic fibrosis, hypertension, immunocompromised state, neurologic conditions, liver disease, overweight (BMI > 25 kg/m2, but < 30 kg/m2), pulmonary fibrosis, thalassemia, and type 2. In late 2019, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) emerged as a novel virus and initiated a series of events that culminated in the global coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Several predictors for clinical outcomes relating to metabolic health were identified

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