Using web search queries to monitor influenza-like illness: an exploratory retrospective analysis, Netherlands, 2017/18 influenza season.

ABSTRACT: BackgroundDespite the early development of Google Flu Trends in 2009, standards for digital epidemiology methods have not been established and research from European countries is scarce.AimIn this article, we study the use of web search queries to monitor influenza-like illness (ILI) rates in the Netherlands in real time.MethodsIn this retrospective analysis, we simulated the weekly use of a prediction model for estimating the then-current ILI incidence across the 2017/18 influenza season solely based on Google search query data. We used weekly ILI data as reported to The European Surveillance System (TESSY)  each week, and we removed the then-last 4 weeks from our dataset. We then fitted a prediction model based on the then-most-recent search query data from Google Trends to fill the 4-we

SUBMITTER: Schneider PP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7268271 | biostudies-literature | 2020 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature