Google searches for the keywords of "wash hands" predict the speed of national spread of COVID-19 outbreak among 21 countries.
Journal
Brain, behavior, and immunity
ISSN: 1090-2139
Titre abrégé: Brain Behav Immun
Pays: Netherlands
ID NLM: 8800478
Informations de publication
Date de publication:
07 2020
07 2020
Historique:
received:
05
04
2020
revised:
08
04
2020
accepted:
09
04
2020
pubmed:
14
4
2020
medline:
3
7
2020
entrez:
14
4
2020
Statut:
ppublish
Résumé
This study hypothesized that national population health literacy might reflect on their keywords searching. We applied Google searches for "wash hands" and "face mask" during January 19 to February 18 as a surrogate of national population health literacy among 21 countries, and examine whether google searches for "wash hands" and "face masks" would protect from increased numbers of confirmed cases of among 21 countries We found the increased google searches for "wash hands" from January 19 to February 18, 2020, correlated with a lower spreading speed of COVID-19 from February 19 to March 10, 2020 among 21 countries (Pearson's correlation coefficient of -0.70, P < 0.001). The result highlights the importance of public awareness of hand washing in preventing COVID-19 disease spreading.
Identifiants
pubmed: 32283286
pii: S0889-1591(20)30474-8
doi: 10.1016/j.bbi.2020.04.020
pmc: PMC7151250
pii:
doi:
Types de publication
Journal Article
Langues
eng
Sous-ensembles de citation
IM
Pagination
30-32Informations de copyright
Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.