A machine learning method to monitor China's AIDS epidemics with data from Baidu trends.

ABSTRACT:

Background

AIDS is a worrying public health issue in China and lacks timely and effective surveillance. With the diffusion and adoption of the Internet, the 'big data' aggregated from Internet search engines, which contain users' information on the concern or reality of their health status, provide a new opportunity for AIDS surveillance. This paper uses search engine data to monitor and forecast AIDS in China.

Methods

A machine learning method, artificial neural networks (ANNs), is used to forecast AIDS incidences and deaths. Search trend data related to AIDS from the largest Chinese search engine, Baidu.com, are collected and selected as the input variables of ANNs, and officially reported actual AIDS incidences and deaths are used as the output variable. Three criteria, t

SUBMITTER: Nan Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6040727 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature