Monitoring influenza activity in the United States: a comparison of traditional surveillance systems with Google Flu Trends.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Google Flu Trends was developed to estimate US influenza-like illness (ILI) rates from internet searches; however ILI does not necessarily correlate with actual influenza virus infections.

Methods and findings

Influenza activity data from 2003-04 through 2007-08 were obtained from three US surveillance systems: Google Flu Trends, CDC Outpatient ILI Surveillance Network (CDC ILI Surveillance), and US Influenza Virologic Surveillance System (CDC Virus Surveillance). Pearson's correlation coefficients with 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) were calculated to compare surveillance data. An analysis was performed to investigate outlier observations and determine the extent to which they affected the correlations between surveillance data. Pearson's correlation coefficie

SUBMITTER: Ortiz JR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3083406 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature