Skip to main content
Key Specialties
Cardiology Diabetology Endocrinology Gastroenterology Geriatrics and Gerontology Gynecology and Obstetrics Hematology Infectious Disease Internal Medicine Nephrology Neurology Oncology Pediatrics Respiratory Medicine Rheumatology Surgery
Congress Coverage
2024 ACC Congress 2023 ESMO Congress 2023 EASD Congress 2023 ERS Congress 2023 ESC Congress
Clinical Collections
Advances in Alzheimer’s

At a glance: The STEP trials

A round-up of the STEP phase 3 clinical trials evaluating semaglutide for weight loss in people with overweight or obesity.
ADVANCED SEARCH
Log in
Top
Neurological Sciences
Published in: Neurological Sciences 5/2016

01-05-2016 | Original Article

Why do people google movement disorders? An infodemiological study of information seeking behaviors

Authors: Francesco Brigo, Roberto Erro

Published in: Neurological Sciences | Issue 5/2016

Login to get access

Abstract

Millions of people worldwide everyday search Google or Wikipedia to look for health-related information. Aim of this study was to evaluate and interpret web search queries for terms related to movement disorders (MD) in English-speaking countries and their changes over time. We analyzed information regarding the volume of online searches in Google and Wikipedia for the most common MD and their treatments. We determined the highest search volume peaks to identify possible relation with online news headlines. The volume of searches for some queries related to MD entered in Google enormously increased over time. Most queries were related to definition, subtypes, symptoms and treatment (mostly to adverse effects, or alternatively, to possible alternative treatments). The highest peaks of MD search queries were temporally related to news about celebrities suffering from MD, to specific mass-media events or to news concerning pharmaceutic companies or scientific discoveries on MD. An increasing number of people use Google and Wikipedia to look for terms related to MD to obtain information on definitions, causes and symptoms, possibly to aid initial self-diagnosis. MD information demand and the actual prevalence of different MDs do not travel together: web search volume may mirrors patients’ fears and worries about some particular disorders perceived as more serious than others, or may be driven by release of news about celebrities suffering from MD, “breaking news” or specific mass-media events regarding MD.
Appendix
Available only for authorised users
Literature
1.
2.
Ginsberg J, Mohebbi MH, Patel RS, Brammer L, Smolinski MS, Brilliant L (2009) Detecting influenza epidemics using search engine query data. Nature 457:1012–1014CrossRefPubMed
3.
Eysenbach G (2009) Infodemiology and infoveillance: framework for an emerging set of public health informatics methods to analyze search, communication and publication behavior on the internet. J Med Internet Res 11:e11CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral
4.
Metcalfe D, Price C, Powell J (2011) Media coverage and public reaction to a celebrity cancer diagnosis. J Public Health (Oxf) 33:80–85CrossRef
5.
Chapman S, McLeod K, Wakefield M et al (2005) Impact of news of celebrity illness on breast cancer screening: Kylie Minogue’s breast cancer diagnosis. Med J Aust 183:247–250PubMed
6.
Twine C, Barthelmes L, Gateley CA (2006) Kylie Minogue’s breast cancer: effects on referrals to a rapid access breast clinic in the UK. Breast 15:667–669CrossRefPubMed
7.
MacArthur GJ, Wright M, Beer H et al (2015) Impact of media reporting of cervical cancer in a UK celebrity on a population-based cervical screening programme. J Med Screen 18(2011):204–209
8.
Juthe RH, Zaharchuk A, Wang C. Celebrity disclosures and information seeking: the case of Angelina Jolie. Genet Med 17:545–553
9.
Brigo F, Lochner P, Tezzon F, Nardone R (2014) Web search behavior for multiple sclerosis: an infodemiological study. Mult Scler Relat Disord 3:440–443CrossRefPubMed
10.
Brigo F, Igwe SC, Ausserer H, Nartdone R, Tezzon F, Bongiovanni LG, Trinka E (2014) Why do people Google epilepsy? An infodemiological study of online behavior for epilepsy-related search terms. Epilepsy Behav 31:67–70CrossRefPubMed
11.
Brigo F, Igwe SC, Nardone R, Lochner P, Tezzon F, Otte WM (2015) Wikipedia and neurological disorders. J Clin Neurosci 22:1170–1172CrossRefPubMed
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
Brigo F (2015) Impact of news of celebrity illness on online search behavior: the ‘Robin Williams’ phenomenon’. J Public Health (Oxf) 37:555–556CrossRef
19.
Erro R, Rubio-Agusti I, Saifee TA, Cordivari C, Ganos C, Batla A, Bhatia KP (2014) Rest and other types of tremor in adult-onset primary dystonia. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 85:965–968CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral
20.
Katzenschlager R, Evans A, Manson A, Patsalos PN, Ratnaraj N, Watt H, Timmermann L, Van der Giessen R, Lees AJ (2004) Mucuna pruriens in Parkinson’s disease: a double blind clinical and pharmacological study. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 75:1672–1677CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral
21.
Carneiro HA, Mylonakis E (2009) Google trends: a web-based tool for real-time surveillance of disease outbreaks. Clin Infect Dis 49:1557–1564CrossRefPubMed
22.
Seifter A, Schwarzwalder A, Geis K, Aucott J (2010) The utility of “Google trends” for epidemiological research: lyme disease as an example. Geospat Health 4:135–137CrossRefPubMed
23.
Stamelou M, Edwards MJ, Espay AJ, Fung VS, Hallett M, Lang AE, Tijssen MA, Bhatia KP (2011) Movement disorders on YouTube—caveat spectator. N Engl J Med 365:1160–1161CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral
24.
Brigo F, Erro R (2015) The readability of the English Wikipedia article on Parkinson’s disease. Neurol Sci 36:1045–1046CrossRefPubMed
25.
Higgins O, Sixsmith J, Barry MM, Domegan C (2011) A literature review on health information seeking behaviour on the web: a health consumer and health professional perspective. ECDC, Stockholm
26.
Murray E, Lo B, Pollack L, Donelan K, Catania J, Lee K, Zapert K, Turner R (2003) The impact of health information on the internet on health care and the physician–patient relationship: national US survey among 1.050 US physicians. J Med Internet Res 5:e17CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral
Metadata
Title
Why do people google movement disorders? An infodemiological study of information seeking behaviors
Authors
Francesco Brigo
Roberto Erro
Publication date
01-05-2016
Publisher
Springer Milan
Published in
Neurological Sciences / Issue 5/2016
Print ISSN: 1590-1874
Electronic ISSN: 1590-3478
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10072-016-2501-5

Other articles of this Issue 5/2016

Neurological Sciences 5/2016 Go to the issue

Erratum

Erratum to: The ventrolateral preoptic nucleus is required for propofol-induced inhibition of locus coeruleus neuronal activity

Original Article

Neuroprotective effect of lignans extracted from Eucommia ulmoides Oliv. on glaucoma-related neurodegeneration

Letter to the Editor

A case report of eight and a half syndrome

Letter to the Editor

Isolated writer’s cramp symptomatic to a brain tumour

Letter to the Editor

Cauda equina syndrome due to large B-cell lymphoma: a case report

Original Article

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy for the treatment of traumatic brain injury: a meta-analysis