Infodemiology

Infodemiology (and the closely related term infoveillance) is a term coined by Canadian researcher Gunther Eysenbach. Eysenbach defines "infodemiology" (or information epidemiology) as a "new research discipline and methodology [which deals with] the study of the determinants and distribution of health information [on the Internet]", with the ultimate goal to improve public health[1][2]

Eysenbach first used the term in the context of measuring and predicting the quality of health information on the web (i.e., measuring the "supply" side of information).[1] He later included into his definition methods and techniques which are designed to automatically measure and track health information "demand" (e.g., by analyzing search queries) as well as "supply" (e.g., by analyzing postings on webpages, in blogs, and news articles, for example through GPHIN) on the Internet with the overarching goal to inform public health policy and practice. In 2013, the Infovigil Project was launched in an effort bring the research community together to help realize this goal, and is funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.[3]

Eysenbach demonstrated his point by showing a correlation between flu-related searches on Google (demand data) and flu-incidence data.[2] The method is shown to be better and more timely (i.e., can predict public health events earlier) than traditional syndromic surveillance methods such as reports by sentinel physicians.

Researchers have applied an infodemiological approach to studying the spread of HIV/AIDS,[4] SARS[5] and influenza,[6][7] the incidence of multiple sclerosis,[8][9] patterns of alcohol consumption,[10] the efficacy of using the social web for personalization of health treatment,[11][12] the contexts of status epilepticus patients,[13][14] and the effectiveness of the Great American Smokeout anti-smoking awareness event.[15] Applications outside the field of health care include urban planning[16] and the study of economic trends and voter preferences.[17]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Gunther Eysenbach, "Infodemiology: The epidemiology of (mis)information". American Journal of Medicine. 2002 Dec 15; 113(9):763-5.
  2. 1 2 Gunther Eysenbach, "Infodemiology: Tracking Flu-Related Searches on the Web for Syndromic Surveillance". Proceedings of the AMIA Symposium 2006; 244-248
  3. ↑ Eysenbach, Gunther. "The Infovigil Project". www.infodemiology.org. Retrieved 2016-11-12.
  4. ↑ Ling, Rebecca; Lee, Joon (2016-10-12). "Disease Monitoring and Health Campaign Evaluation Using Google Search Activities for HIV and AIDS, Stroke, Colorectal Cancer, and Marijuana Use in Canada: A Retrospective Observational Study". JMIR public health and surveillance. 2 (2): e156. doi:10.2196/publichealth.6504. PMC 5081479Freely accessible. PMID 27733330.
  5. ↑ Eysenbach, Gunther (2003-01-01). "SARS and Population Health Technology". Journal of Medical Internet Research. 5 (2). doi:10.2196/jmir.5.2.e14. PMC 1550560Freely accessible. PMID 12857670.
  6. ↑ Woo, Hyekyung; Cho, Youngtae; Shim, Eunyoung; Lee, Jong-Koo; Lee, Chang-Gun; Kim, Seong Hwan (2016-07-04). "Estimating Influenza Outbreaks Using Both Search Engine Query Data and Social Media Data in South Korea". Journal of Medical Internet Research. 18 (7): e177. doi:10.2196/jmir.4955. ISSN 1438-8871. PMC 4949385Freely accessible. PMID 27377323.
  7. ↑ Lampos, Vasileios; Miller, Andrew C.; Crossan, Steve; Stefansen, Christian (2015-08-03). "Advances in nowcasting influenza-like illness rates using search query logs". Scientific Reports. 5. doi:10.1038/srep12760. ISSN 2045-2322. PMC 4522652Freely accessible. PMID 26234783.
  8. ↑ Bragazzi, Nicola Luigi (2013-01-01). "Infodemiology and infoveillance of multiple sclerosis in Italy". Multiple Sclerosis International. 2013: 924029. doi:10.1155/2013/924029. ISSN 2090-2654. PMC 3762202Freely accessible. PMID 24027636.
  9. ↑ Brigo, Francesco; Lochner, Piergiorgio; Tezzon, Frediano; Nardone, Raffaele (2014-07-01). "Web search behavior for multiple sclerosis: An infodemiological study". Multiple Sclerosis and Related Disorders. 3 (4): 440–443. doi:10.1016/j.msard.2014.02.005. ISSN 2211-0356. PMID 25877054.
  10. ↑ Chan, Kl; Ho, Sy; Lam, Th (2013-09-02). "Infodemiology of alcohol use in Hong Kong mentioned on blogs: infoveillance study". Journal of Medical Internet Research. 15 (9): e192. doi:10.2196/jmir.2180. ISSN 1438-8871. PMC 3785983Freely accessible. PMID 23999327.
  11. ↑ Fernandez-Luque, Luis; Karlsen, Randi; Bonander, Jason (2011-01-01). "Review of Extracting Information From the Social Web for Health Personalization". Journal of Medical Internet Research. 13 (1). doi:10.2196/jmir.1432. PMC 3221336Freely accessible. PMID 21278049.
  12. ↑ Kim, Yoonsang; Huang, Jidong; Emery, Sherry (2016-02-26). "Garbage in, Garbage Out: Data Collection, Quality Assessment and Reporting Standards for Social Media Data Use in Health Research, Infodemiology and Digital Disease Detection". Journal of Medical Internet Research. 18 (2): e41. doi:10.2196/jmir.4738. ISSN 1438-8871. PMC 4788740Freely accessible. PMID 26920122.
  13. ↑ Bragazzi, Nicola Luigi; Bacigaluppi, Susanna; Robba, Chiara; Nardone, Raffaele; Trinka, Eugen; Brigo, Francesco (2016-02-01). "Infodemiology of status epilepticus: A systematic validation of the Google Trends-based search queries". Epilepsy & Behavior: E&B. 55: 120–123. doi:10.1016/j.yebeh.2015.12.017. ISSN 1525-5069. PMID 26773681.
  14. ↑ Brigo, Francesco; Otte, Willem M.; Igwe, Stanley C.; Ausserer, Harald; Nardone, Raffaele; Tezzon, Frediano; Trinka, Eugen (2015-12-01). "Information-seeking behaviour for epilepsy: an infodemiological study of searches for Wikipedia articles". Epileptic Disorders: International Epilepsy Journal with Videotape. 17 (4): 460–466. doi:10.1684/epd.2015.0772. ISSN 1950-6945. PMID 26575365.
  15. ↑ Ayers, John W.; Westmaas, J. Lee; Leas, Eric C.; Benton, Adrian; Chen, Yunqi; Dredze, Mark; Althouse, Benjamin M. (2016-06-01). "Leveraging Big Data to Improve Health Awareness Campaigns: A Novel Evaluation of the Great American Smokeout". JMIR public health and surveillance. 2 (1): e16. doi:10.2196/publichealth.5304. PMC 4869240Freely accessible. PMID 27227151.
  16. ↑ "Even the most mundane online social commentary can have a purpose". The Irish Times. Retrieved 2016-11-12.
  17. ↑ Blastland, Michael (2010-12-14). "What do Google, Ask and Bing search results mean?". BBC News. Retrieved 2016-11-12.
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