Identifying the geographic leading edge of Lyme disease in the United States with internet searches: A spatiotemporal analysis of Google Health Trends data.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The geographic footprint of Lyme disease is expanding in the United States, which calls for novel methods to identify emerging endemic areas. The ubiquity of internet use coupled with the dominance of Google's search engine makes Google user search data a compelling data source for epidemiological research.

Objective

We evaluated the potential of Google Health Trends to track spatiotemporal patterns in Lyme disease and identify the leading edge of disease risk in the United States.

Materials and methods

We analyzed internet search rates for Lyme disease-related queries at the designated market area (DMA) level (n = 206) for the 2011-2019 and 2020-2021 (COVID-19 pandemic) periods. We used maps and other exploratory methods to characterize changes in search b

SUBMITTER: Wychgram C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11560046 | biostudies-literature | 2024

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature