Dear editor,
Since December 2019, the emergence of COVID-19 and its rapid spread has created an atmosphere of consternation where it is not easy to breathe. The COVID-19 outbreak might have several consequences on mental health [[1], [2], [3]]. It has been discovered from recent studies that the fear of corona has also affected the content googled by Indian internet users, as Internet users are using Google as a great source of information [4]. Evidently, mental status and behavioral changes such as major anxiety, depression, and suicide of the population can be reflected through the Google searches [5]. Therefore, we examined the correlation between the spreading speed of COVID-19 infection and the relative search volumes (RSV) of contents explored by the Indians during the pandemic.
This analysis has been begun by searching mental health indicators using Google Trends for the following RSVs: “suicide”, “autism”, “anxiety”, “depression,” and “dementia”. Moreover, as preventive indicators against infection, the RSVs “social distancing”, “hand wash”, “face mask”, “COVID 19 symptoms,” and “immunity” have been searched using Google Trends. It was discovered that Google search for the term “COVID-19” in India was started on March 04, 2020 (Supplementary Figure figs1). Afterward, public interest in COVID-19 searches started to increase considerably. Furthermore, by comparing the Google searches related to mental health issues pre- and post-lockdown, it can be observed that population interest in Google searches encountered a sharp increase around the nationwide lockdown declaration on March 25, 2020 (Supplementary Figure figs2). Similar patterns can be seen in Google searches for preventive measures with increasing global concerns about COVID-19 around March 04, 2020 (Supplementary Figure figs3). Since a number of daily COVID-19 infectious cases and deaths in India have been increasing, corresponding peaks were recorded in search queries by Google Trends between March 25, 2020, and July 31, 2020. For the Pearson correlation coefficient, the RSVs “suicide”, “anxiety”, “depression” and “dementia” are highly correlated with the daily infectious cases and deaths at the significant p-value (<0.05) (Table 1 ). Contrarily, the RSV “autism” was negatively correlated with the daily infectious cases and deaths. This is obvious because a 40% increment is reported in India’s cases of mental health issues between March 25, 2020, and April 30, 2020. Moreover, suicide was the leading cause for more than 300 “non-coronavirus deaths” reported in India due to anxiety and depression triggered by COVID-19 fear. Therefore, seasonal changes in mental illness and suicides are likely to account for this observation. Evidently, the sudden escalation in the population interest or concern about COVID-19 in their googled content reflects emergent “behavioral disorders”. Furthermore, the COVID-19 scare prompted the Indian population to endeavor the techniques of protecting themselves. Google searches could be used as a reflector of the enhanced concern and health literacy in India. Google searches for RSVs “social distancing”, “hand wash”, “face mask”, “COVID 19 symptoms” and “immunity” have been found as significant indicators of COVID-19 outbreaks, and have been applied to estimate nation’s consciousness against the spread of infection. Google searches for these RSVs have increased since March 25, 2020, and peaked on April 14, 2020. The evaluation of the Pearson correlation coefficient revealed a high correlation between RSV index “COVID 19 symptoms” and the search terms “social distancing”, “wash hand”, and “immunity” (Table 1). However, the RSV for “face mask” is negatively correlated with the RSV “COVID 19 symptoms”. Furthermore, the RSV indexes “social distancing”, “wash hand”, “COVID 19 symptoms,” and “immunity” are negatively correlated with the daily infectious cases and deaths, while RSV “face mask” is highly correlated. It is noteworthy to mention that Google Trends can correlate the emerging disease with infection transmission-reduction policies to mitigate the infection and contemplate the public health literacy in the early stage of the pandemic. These findings reveal that life-threatening COVID-19 infection changes individual views on protecting the most important aspects of their lives. However, lack of awareness about the protection measures might be the cause of increasing numbers of infectious cases and deaths in India.
Table 1.
Investigation of Pearson correlation coefficient between google searches of particular keywords RSV and daily infectious cases and deaths in India.
| a. Impact of COVID-19 scare on mental health | ||
|---|---|---|
| Google search terms | Daily COVID-19 cases |
Daily COVID-19 deaths |
| r (p < 0.05) | r (p < 0.05) | |
| “Suicide” | 0.1306 | 0.1564 |
| “Autism” | −0.1691 | −0.1924 |
| “Anxiety”, | 0.5233 | 0.5272 |
| “Depression" | 0.3019 | 0.339 |
| “Dementia” | 0.3933 | 0.3908 |
| b. Impact of COVID-19 scare on consciousness about preventive measures | ||
|---|---|---|
| Google search terms | Daily COVID-19 cases |
Daily COVID-19 deaths |
| r (p < 0.05) | r (p < 0.05) | |
| “Social distancing” | −0.217 | −0.2204 |
| “Hand wash” | −0.3313 | −0.2906 |
| “Face mask” | 0.7911 | 0.7077 |
| “COVID-19 symptoms” | −0.4169 | −0.4483 |
| “Immunity” | −0.078 | −0.115 |
| c. Correlation between RSV index “COVID-19 symptoms” and google searches | |
|---|---|
| Google search terms | “COVID-19 symptoms” |
| r (p < 0.05) | |
| “Social distancing” | 0.5787 |
| “Hand wash” | 0.7885 |
| “Face mask” | −0.2377 |
| “Immunity” | 0.5886 |
Financial support
This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.
Declaration of competing interest
The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest.
Footnotes
Supplementary data to this article can be found online at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dsx.2020.09.015.
Appendix A. Supplementary data
The following are the Supplementary data to this article:
figs1.
figs2.
figs3.
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