Abstract
Google Trends data are an efficient source for analysing internet search behaviour and providing valuable insights into community dynamics and health-related problems. In this article, we aimed to evaluate if Google Trends data could help monitor the COVID-19 vaccination trend over time and if the introduction of COVID-19 vaccines modified the interest of pregnant women in vaccination. Data related to Google internet searches and the number of vaccine doses administered in Italy were used. We found moderate to strong correlations between search volumes of vaccine-related terms and the number of vaccines administered. In particular, a model based on Google Trends with a 3-week lag showed the best performance in fitting the number of COVID-19 vaccinations over time. We also observed that the introduction of COVID-19 vaccines affected the search interest for the argument “vaccination in pregnancy” both quantitatively and qualitatively. There was a significant increase in the search interest after the launch of the COVID-19 vaccination campaign in Italy. Qualitative analysis suggested that this increase was probably due to concerns about COVID-19 vaccines. Thus, our study suggests the benefits of using Google Trends data to predict the number of COVID-19 vaccine doses administered, and to monitor feelings about vaccination.
Highlights
COVID-19 vaccines were introduced between late 2020 and the first months of 2021, by launching large-scale vaccination programmes across many countries
The regional volume of searches for the keyword “Vaccine (Argument)” was moderately but significantly correlated with the regional number of vaccine doses administered per 100,000 inhabitants (Spearman’s ρ = 0.489; p < 0.01)
It was demonstrated that the search volume of vaccine-related terms increased at the beginning of 2020, with some peaks coinciding with public declarations and announcements about new vaccine releases or a significant rise in COVID-19 cases [15]
Summary
COVID-19 vaccines were introduced between late 2020 and the first months of 2021, by launching large-scale vaccination programmes across many countries. On the other hand, are often directed at representative samples of households and/or facilities to evaluate aspects such as immunisation outcomes and service delivery [3]. The latter, despite offering the possibility of producing more disaggregated data than administrative reporting systems, are less frequent and more expensive [3]
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