INTERNET merkittävä tietolähde

[soijuv]

Internetin tietojen hakuun käytetyt hakukoneet kuten Google lisäävät jatkuvasti suosiotaan terveyttä/sairautta koskevassa tiedonhaussa myös Borrelioosin kohdalla. Tietoa Borrelioosista haettiin erityisesti keväisin ja kesäisin jolloin tartuntavaara on suurimmillaan sekä endeemisillä alueilla.(2010)

Geospat Health. 2010 May;4(2):135-7.
The utility of "Google Trends" for epidemiological research: Lyme disease as an
example.

Seifter A, Schwarzwalder A, Geis K, Aucott J.

Lyme Disease Research Foundation of Maryland, 10755 Falls Road, Lutherville, MD
21093, USA.

Internet search engines have become an increasingly popular resource for
accessing health-related information. The key words used as well as the number
and geographic location of searches can provide trend data, as have recently
been made available by Google Trends. We report briefly on exploring this
resource using Lyme disease as an example because it has well-described seasonal
and geographic patterns. We found that search traffic for the string "Lyme
disease" reflected increased likelihood of exposure during spring and summer
months; conversely, the string "cough" had higher relative traffic during winter
months. The cities and states with the highest amount of search traffic for
"Lyme disease" overlapped considerably with those where Lyme is known to be
endemic. Despite limitations to over-interpretation, we found Google Trends to
approximate certain trends previously identified in the epidemiology of Lyme
disease. The generation of this type of data may have valuable future
implications in aiding surveillance of a broad range of diseases.

http://eutils.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/e ... md=prlinks
PMID: 20503183 [PubMed - in process]