Abstract
Background: E-health tools have been used to assess the temporal variations of different health problems. The aim of our infodemiology study was to investigate the seasonal pattern of search volumes for back pain in Italy. Methods: In Italian, back pain is indicated by the medical word “lombalgia”. Using Google Trends, we selected the three search terms related to “lombalgia” with higher relative search volumes (RSV), (namely, “mal di schiena”, “dolore alla schiena” and “dolore lombare”), representing the semantic preferences of users when performing web queries for back pain in Italy. Wikipedia page view statistics were used to identify the number of visits to the page “lombalgia”. Strength and direction of secular trends were assessed using the Mann–Kendall test. Cosinor analysis was used to evaluate the potential seasonality of back pain-related RSV. Results: We found a significant upward secular trend from 2005 to 2020 for search terms “mal di schiena” (τ = 0.734, p < 0.0001), “dolore alla schiena” (τ = 0.713, p < 0.0001) and “dolore lombare” (τ = 0.628, p < 0.0001). Cosinor analysis on Google Trends RSV showed a significant seasonality for the terms “mal di schiena” (pcos < 0.001), “dolore alla schiena” (pcos < 0.0001), “dolore lombare” (pcos < 0.0001) and “lombalgia” (pcos = 0.017). Cosinor analysis performed on views for the page “lombalgia” in Wikipedia confirmed a significant seasonality (pcos < 0.0001). Both analyses demonstrated a peak of interest in winter months and decrease in spring/summer. Conclusions: Our infodemiology approach revealed significant seasonal fluctuations in search queries for back pain in Italy, with peaking volumes during the coldest months of the year.
Highlights
In the dynamic environment of the web, the term e-health has been broadly used since late 1990s to encompass all aspects of the Internet and medicine [1]
Visual inspection of the time series plot with LOESS smoothing suggested an inVisual inspection of the time series plot with LOESS smoothing suggested an increascreasing secular trend of relative search volumes (RSV) for the search terms “mal di schiena” (Figure 1A), “dolore ing secular trend of RSV for the search terms “mal di schiena” (Figure 1A), “dolore alla alla schiena” (Figure 1B) and “dolore lombare” (Figure 1C)
Trends searchsector volumes and WikipeE-health tools are increasingly being of used in the healthcare by both patients dia page view statistics demonstrated a significantly peaking interest towards back pain and providers, with broad potential applications [50]
Summary
In the dynamic environment of the web, the term e-health has been broadly used since late 1990s to encompass all aspects of the Internet and medicine [1]. Information and communication technology (ICT) for health-related matters has become an important source of implementation for traditional health resources [2]. Technological advancements offered to policy makers, healthcare professionals and researchers represent an opportunity to stimulate positive health behaviours, promote prevention and simplify retrieval of information about diseases or treatments [5,6,7]. Using Google Trends, we selected the three search terms related to “lombalgia” with higher relative search volumes (RSV), (namely, “mal di schiena”, “dolore alla schiena” and “dolore lombare”), representing the semantic preferences of users when performing web queries for back pain in Italy. Strength and direction of secular trends were assessed using the Mann–Kendall test
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