{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,28]],"date-time":"2026-02-28T00:12:31Z","timestamp":1772237551688,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":37,"publisher":"JMIR Publications Inc.","issue":"3","content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["JMIR Public Health Surveill"],"abstract":"\n Background<\/jats:title>\n The emergence and media coverage of COVID-19 may have affected influenza search patterns, possibly affecting influenza surveillance results using Google Trends.<\/jats:p>\n <\/jats:sec>\n \n Objective<\/jats:title>\n We aimed to investigate if the emergence of COVID-19 was associated with modifications in influenza search patterns in the United States.<\/jats:p>\n <\/jats:sec>\n \n Methods<\/jats:title>\n We retrieved US Google Trends data (relative number of searches for specified terms) for the topics influenza, Coronavirus disease 2019, and symptoms shared between influenza and COVID-19. We calculated the correlations between influenza and COVID-19 search data for a 1-year period after the first COVID-19 diagnosis in the United States (January 21, 2020 to January 20, 2021). We constructed a seasonal autoregressive integrated moving average model and compared predicted search volumes, using the 4 previous years, with Google Trends relative search volume data. We built a similar model for shared symptoms data. We also assessed correlations for the past 5 years between Google Trends influenza data, US Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention influenza-like illness data, and influenza media coverage data.<\/jats:p>\n <\/jats:sec>\n \n Results<\/jats:title>\n We observed a nonsignificant weak correlation (\u03c1= \u20130.171; P=0.23) between COVID-19 and influenza Google Trends data. Influenza search volumes for 2020-2021 distinctly deviated from values predicted by seasonal autoregressive integrated moving average models\u2014for 6 weeks within the first 13 weeks after the first COVID-19 infection was confirmed in the United States, the observed volume of searches was higher than the upper bound of 95% confidence intervals for predicted values. Similar results were observed for shared symptoms with influenza and COVID-19 data. The correlation between Google Trends influenza data and CDC influenza-like-illness data decreased after the emergence of COVID-19 (2020-2021: \u03c1=0.643; 2019-2020: \u03c1=0.902), while the correlation between Google Trends influenza data and influenza media coverage volume remained stable (2020-2021: \u03c1=0.746; 2019-2020: \u03c1=0.707).<\/jats:p>\n <\/jats:sec>\n \n Conclusions<\/jats:title>\n Relevant differences were observed between predicted and observed influenza Google Trends data the year after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. Such differences are possibly due to media coverage, suggesting limitations to the use of Google Trends as a flu surveillance tool.<\/jats:p>\n <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.2196\/32364","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,12,8]],"date-time":"2021-12-08T16:58:54Z","timestamp":1638982734000},"page":"e32364","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":8,"title":["United States Influenza Search Patterns Since the Emergence of COVID-19: Infodemiology Study"],"prefix":"10.2196","volume":"8","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2601-9186","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Owen","family":"Cai","sequence":"first","affiliation":[]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-1277-3401","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Bernardo","family":"Sousa-Pinto","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]}],"member":"1010","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,3,3]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref1","unstructured":"FAQ about Google Trends 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and differences between flu and COVID-19Centers for Disease Control and Prevention2021-12-29https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/flu\/symptoms\/flu-vs-covid19.htm"},{"key":"ref26","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1073\/pnas.0900933106"},{"key":"ref27","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1186\/s13601-020-00352-9"},{"key":"ref28","unstructured":"CDC FluView weekly report national, regional, and state\/jurisdiction level outpatient illness and viral surveillance application quick reference guideCenters for Disease Control and Prevention2021-05-12https:\/\/gis.cdc.gov\/grasp\/fluview\/FluViewPhase2QuickReferenceGuide.pdf"},{"key":"ref29","unstructured":"American Journal of Managed CareA timeline of COVID-19 developments in 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