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. 2022 Nov 8:10:948478.
doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2022.948478. eCollection 2022.

Web search behaviors and infodemic attitudes regarding COVID-19 in Turkey: A framework study for improving response and informing policy on the COVID-19 infodemic

Cüneyt Çalışkan  1 , Gözde Özsezer  2 , Melek Pay  3 , Gülcan Demir  4 , Ismet Çelebi  5 , Hüseyin Koçak  6
Affiliations

Web search behaviors and infodemic attitudes regarding COVID-19 in Turkey: A framework study for improving response and informing policy on the COVID-19 infodemic

Cüneyt Çalışkan et al. Front Public Health. .

Abstract

Objective: This study aimed to develop a framework regarding COVID-19 infodemic response and policy informing through focusing on infodemic concepts circulating on the online search engine in Turkey in relation to the COVID-19 outbreak and comparing the contents of these concepts with Maslow's hierarchy of needs and disaster stages.

Materials and methods: The universe of this descriptive epidemiological research consists of internet search activities on COVID-19 circulating online on Google Trends between March 10, 2020, when the first case was seen in Turkey, and June 01, 2020, when the lockdown restrictions were lifted.

Findings: There was no internet trend regarding a misinformed attitude within the given date range. While an infodemic attitude toward superficial attitude and racist attitude in the internet environment was detected for 1 week, an infodemic attitude toward definitive attitude was detected for 2 weeks. The non-infodemic concepts were more common than the other infodemic attitudes. The infodemic concepts were able to reach Maslow's physiological, safety, and social need levels. With the infodemic concepts obtained, a COVID-19 development process framework was developed. The framework consists of three domains (COVID-19, applications and outcomes), including disaster phases and health/social impacts, built on seven public health epochs.

Results: A systematized COVID-19 development process framework was modeled in order to conceptualize COVID-19 internet searches and to reveal the development processes and outcomes.

Keywords: COVID-19; Maslow's hierarchy of needs; disasters; fears COVID-19-related; infodemic; pandemics; web searches.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
COVID-19 development process framework.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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