We conducted a digital search accessing Google Trends with the keyword “suicide”, within the definition of “search term”, setting the geographical location to “United States”, and restricting the analysis to the past 6 years (i.e., from January 2018 to January 2023). The weekly Google Trends score for suicide, thus reflecting its Web popularity and expected prevalence in the US was downloaded into a Microsoft Excel file. We classified two search period as “pre-COVID” (between January 2018 and February 2020; 112 weeks) and “COVID” (from March 2020 to January 2023; 149 weeks). The results of our infodemiological showed that during the COVID-19 pandemic the worldwide volume of Google searches for the search term “suicide” slightly decreased compared to the pre-COVID period. Specifically, the Google Trends score decreased from 20 (IQR, 19–22) in the pre-COVID period to 17 (IQR, 16–19; p = 0.019) during the pandemic. The results of this infodemiological analysis support those earlier reported, showing that suicidal intentions in the general US population not only may not have increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, but may have instead exhibited a marginal decline.

Infodemiological analysis of suicide intentions in the US before and during the COVID-19 pandemic

Mattiuzzi, Camilla;Lippi, Giuseppe
In corso di stampa

Abstract

We conducted a digital search accessing Google Trends with the keyword “suicide”, within the definition of “search term”, setting the geographical location to “United States”, and restricting the analysis to the past 6 years (i.e., from January 2018 to January 2023). The weekly Google Trends score for suicide, thus reflecting its Web popularity and expected prevalence in the US was downloaded into a Microsoft Excel file. We classified two search period as “pre-COVID” (between January 2018 and February 2020; 112 weeks) and “COVID” (from March 2020 to January 2023; 149 weeks). The results of our infodemiological showed that during the COVID-19 pandemic the worldwide volume of Google searches for the search term “suicide” slightly decreased compared to the pre-COVID period. Specifically, the Google Trends score decreased from 20 (IQR, 19–22) in the pre-COVID period to 17 (IQR, 16–19; p = 0.019) during the pandemic. The results of this infodemiological analysis support those earlier reported, showing that suicidal intentions in the general US population not only may not have increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, but may have instead exhibited a marginal decline.
In corso di stampa
SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19, Suicide, Google Trends
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11562/1090266
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