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. 2022 Mar 9;19(6):3208.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph19063208.

An Analysis of the Deleterious Impact of the Infodemic during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Brazil: A Case Study Considering Possible Correlations with Socioeconomic Aspects of Brazilian Demography

Maria da Penha de Andrade Abi Harb  1 , Lena Veiga E Silva  2 , Nandamudi Lankalapalli Vijaykumar  3 , Marcelino Silva da Silva  4 , Carlos Renato Lisboa Francês  1
Affiliations

An Analysis of the Deleterious Impact of the Infodemic during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Brazil: A Case Study Considering Possible Correlations with Socioeconomic Aspects of Brazilian Demography

Maria da Penha de Andrade Abi Harb et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

Due to COVID-19, a huge amount of incorrect information has been disseminated on the internet, which may interfere with the disease's advance. This study analyzes the behavior of the Brazilian population during the pandemic, employing queries of infodemic data searched on Google Trends and relating them to socioeconomic and political indicators in the country. The z-score technique was used to standardize the data; and for multivalued analysis, dendrograms and the Elbow method detected similar patterns among Brazilian states. The result was divided into three analyses. In the analysis of the research trend of infodemic terms, the themes "Prevention and Beliefs" and "Treatment" prevailed. In the exploratory analysis, socioeconomic indicators related to income and education, as well as government programs, showed no impact on infodemic searches; but the results suggest that the states that supported the Brazilian president in the 2018 election, where he obtained more than 50% of the votes, were the states that most searched for infodemic terms: a total of 46.58% more infodemic searches than in the other states. In the multivalued analysis, the socioeconomic indicators used showed similarities in the patterns, highlighting a cluster containing 77% of all Brazilian states. The study concludes that denial about the pandemic and the influence of political leadership can influence infodemic information searches, contributing to a disorganization in the control of disease control and prevention measures.

Keywords: Google Trends; clustering; dendrogram; denialism; government programs; infodemic COVID-19; socio-economic variables.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Clustering analysis stages.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Search trend for infodemic terms in Brazil in RSVs.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Spatial distribution: Infodemics RSVs, income, and education.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Spatial distribution: Infodemic RSVs and Government Programs.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Spatial distribution: Infodemic RSVs and 2018 presidential elections.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Clustering of Brazil in the pandemic quarters—Infodemic and social inequality. States assigned to the same cluster share the same color.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Clustering of Brazil in the pandemic quarters—Infodemic and government cash transfer programs. States assigned to the same cluster share the same color.
Figure 8
Figure 8
Clustering of Brazil—Infodemic × president of the republic. States assigned to the same cluster share the same color.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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