Association between disease data and searching for information in Spain: the case of syphilis and gonorrhea

Abstract

Introduction: Web 2.0 offers unprecedented opportunities when looking for health information. The objective was to analyze the trend of searches for information about syphilis and gonorrhea, which are carried out in Spain through Google and the possible relation with disease data. Methodology: The search data were obtained through online access to Google Trends: those of illness in Spain from the weekly epidemiological bulletin. The variables studied were: data from infections sexually transmitted, relative search volume (RSV) and milestones. Results: RSV syphilis trends presented slightly decreasing progression (R2=0,05). In the case of gonorrhea evolution was slightly increased with exponential fitting (R2=0.04). The RSV relationship between the two search terms gave a low linear Association (R=0.34). The correlation between disease of syphilis data and the RSV was not significant (R=- 0.09). Low significant direct linear Association was observed for gonorrhea (R=0.21). Conclusions: although disease data reflected the growth that had already been announced by different national and international health institutions, data on search for information did not represent an increase in concern for these STD that influence the increase of the research online.