Google searches for the keywords of "wash hands" predict the speed of national spread of COVID-19 outbreak among 21 countries

Abstract

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.

Fig. 1

We defined the baseline as the average of Google Trend” value (16.5) from December 19, 2019 to January 18, 2020, based on this period prior to any widespread knowledge of the disease worldwide. We defined the indicator as the number of days during January 19 to February 18 with a “Google Trend” value of at least 25 (16.5 + 25 = 41.5) from baseline. The number of days was 22 with an increased value of at least 25. Similarly, the number of days was 15 with an increased value of at least 50 in Taiwan.

Fig. 2

The number of days with a “Google Trend” value of >25 for “wash hands” during January 19 to February 18 had a temporally negatively association to the logarithmic increased COVID-19 cases among 21 countries during February 18 to March 10.