Elsevier

Journal of Pediatric Nursing

Volume 66, September–October 2022, Pages 191-195
Journal of Pediatric Nursing

Public awareness for “classic” childhood diseases and inflammatory syndromes in children during the COVID-19 pandemic

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pedn.2022.06.015Get rights and content
Under a Creative Commons license
open access

Highlights

  • Google Trends data show a significant effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the public search interest in childhood diseases.

  • Pediatric inflammatory multisystem syndrome (PIMS) has noticed three worldwide peaks of interest in Google Trends data.

  • PIMS interest in Google Trends stayed on a relatively low level in comparison to Kawasaki disease during COVID-19 pandemic.

Abstract

Objectives

The objective was to analyze in silico public search interest during the COVID-19 pandemic for some classic infectious childhood diseases, e.g., measles, mumps, chickenpox, scarlet fever, and inflammatory diseases like Kawasaki disease and the pediatric inflammatory multisystem syndrome (PIMS).

Study design

In this study, a comparison of five childhood diseases in public search trends with the pediatric inflammatory multisystem syndrome was performed.

Methods

Google Trends data for the period of five years for six childhood diseases were used. We used topics coverings all languages worldwide and all connected search queries.

Results

Public search interest decreased during the COVID-19 pandemic for some classic infectious childhood diseases. Search interest for the pediatric inflammatory multisystem syndrome, despite strong indication of a connection with COVID-19, remained relatively low compared to Kawasaki disease.

Practice implications

Better understanding of Google Trends can map public awareness of childhood diseases in terms of time course and search intensity.

Conclusions

Public interest during the pandemic was generated for diseases with suspected connection to COVID-19, presumably due to media triggers.

Keywords

Google trends
COVID-19
Search engine data
PIMS
PMIS
MIS-C

JEL classification

D83
I18

Cited by (0)

1

Both authors contributed equally to the work.