A google trends analysis: Change in internet searches related to cardiovascular disease during covid-19 outbreak

Abstract

Aim: A rapidly grown up information about coronavirus (COVID-19) has been regularly broadcast on internet websites or social media. We investigated the Google research trends in searches regarding cardiovascular system diseases or symptoms such as chest pain, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, heart attack during the COVID-19 pandemic in two countries, Turkey and Italy, which are most affected by this disease. Methods : The Google TrendsTM (GTTM) was used to retrieve data on Internet user search activities and patterns of Google search queries. We searched most known keywords related to cardiovascular disease and symptoms such as chest pain, heart attack, heart diseases, hypertension, high cholesterol in GTTM between January 1, 2020 and May 5, 2020 in Turkish and Italian. Results: Search interest about coronavirus in Turkey and Italy appeared to have an increasing pattern and it has gradually tended to fall after a short time. Searching trends were higher both of countries about chest pain, hypertension, ACE inhibitor and death between January and May 2020. Searching rates about heart attack was not different for all year, but a signifi cant decrease was remarkable for cholesterol. It was also revealed that as the duration of the pandemic increases in both countries, these research rates decrease. Conclusion: Internet could be used to determine behaviours of people for searching cardiovascular disease and their symptoms during the outbreak. These data illustrate that internet users in both countries conducted an intense research on cardiac symptoms or diseases during the COVID-19 pandemic.