Need of care in interpreting Google Trends-based COVID-19 infodemiological study results: potential risk of false-positivity.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Google Trends (GT) is being used as an epidemiological tool to study coronavirus disease (COVID-19) by identifying keywords in search trends that are predictive for the COVID-19 epidemiological burden. However, many of the earlier GT-based studies include potential statistical fallacies by measuring the correlation between non-stationary time sequences without adjusting for multiple comparisons or the confounding of media coverage, leading to concerns about the increased risk of obtaining false-positive results. In this study, we aimed to apply statistically more favorable methods to validate the earlier GT-based COVID-19 study results.

Methods

We extracted the relative GT search volume for keywords associated with COVID-19 symptoms, and evaluated their Granger-ca

SUBMITTER: Sato K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8286439 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature