Can google trends search inform us about the population response and public health impact of abrupt change in alcohol policy? A case study from India during the covid-19 pandemic.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Sudden alcohol prohibition in India during the COVID-19 pandemic presented an opportunity to test whether Google Trends data could indicate population responses and the public health impact of alcohol policy. We hypothesized, following prohibition: there would be a significant change in the relative search volumes (RSV) of alcohol-related queries; that temporal analysis of the trends would reflect a public response to policy changes; and that geospatial analysis of RSV would correlate with the prevalence of alcohol use.

Methods

Three different search periods were used to test the hypotheses. The search inputs were based on potential public response to alcohol prohibition, as evidenced by the literature, newspaper articles, and consensus. We used RSV as the unit of

SUBMITTER: Ghosh A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7572085 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature