Public precaution awareness: a case study from Google search trend during Covid-19 outbreak in Indonesia

Abstract

Objective: The global outbreak of COVID-19 is emerged recently and this poses stress on health and well-being of the people in the worldwide including in Indonesia. Public interest in this new issue largely reflects people’s attention to COVID-19 and their willingness to take precautionary actions. This study aimed to examine public awareness on the prevention of COVID-19 using Google Trend (GT) . Methods: Using GT, we retrieved public query data for the term of (coronavirus, handwashing, hand sanitizer and facemask) between 12 December 2019 and 4 April 2020 in the specific locations of Indonesia nationwide and several provinces. The correlation between daily search volumes on the topic related to COVID-19 and the daily number of people infected with COVID-19 was analyzed. Results: Our studies observed the overall search trend of RSV regarding COVID-19 after the global outbreak and the announcement of first covid-19 case in Indonesia, the search related to COVID-19, and other defined terms in Indonesia increased rapidly. In addition, search related to face mask were gradually increased. Searches for face mask and hand sanitizer is more popular than handwashing. There is a positive correlation between daily RSV on COVID-19 and other defined terms and the daily number of people infected with COVID-19 nationwide ( p <0·05). There are various interest to RSV related to COVID-19, and public awareness of COVID-19 was almost similar in some provinces, particularly searches related to facemask and hand sanitizer. Conclusion: Our findings demonstrates that GT could potentially define the proper timing and location for practicing appropriate risk communication strategies to prevent the spread of emerging disease. The study demonstrates that government should strengthen the publicity of COVID- 19 nationally, reinforce the public's awareness on the prevention of COVID-19 and finally inform the importance of protecting individuals with appropriate and affordable precautionary measures.