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. 2023 Dec 1;38(6):daad152.
doi: 10.1093/heapro/daad152.

Impact of Sickle Cell Awareness Day on online health information seeking in Africa using Google Trends

Emma Parry  1 , Idayat Ayinla-Jimoh  1 , Thomas A Shepherd  1
Affiliations

Impact of Sickle Cell Awareness Day on online health information seeking in Africa using Google Trends

Emma Parry et al. Health Promot Int. .

Abstract

The United Nations Council Assembly recognized sickle cell disease (SCD) as a global public health problem due to its increasing burden, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. To raise awareness, a resolution was adopted, designating June 19th as SCD awareness day. However, the impact of this awareness day on online health information seeking behaviour (OHISB) in African countries is not well understood, especially in Nigeria, Ghana and Uganda where SCD prevalence is high. To assess the impact, the study used Google Trends data as a measure of OHISB for SCD. The analysis covered the 60 days before the awareness day, the awareness day itself, and the 60 days afterward. Time series analysis was conducted using joinpoint regression to identify significant changes in OHISB trends. The results indicated that the impact of the Sickle Cell Awareness Day on OHISB varied across African countries and did not consistently inspire significant changes in information seeking behaviour. This suggests the need for more targeted awareness campaigns to improve public knowledge of SCD in Africa. It also highlights the importance of revising the current awareness day or creating alternative health awareness initiatives that adopt a long-term approach and address the specific health needs of the African population. Furthermore, due to limitations in using Google Trends data in some African countries with insufficient data, future research should explore other sources of internet data or conduct surveys to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the impact of the Sickle Cell Awareness Day on OHISB in Africa.

Keywords: Africa; Google Trends; Sickle Cell Disease; disease awareness; online health information seeking behaviour.

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Figures

Fig. 1:
Fig. 1:
Visual schema of our GT search strategy.
Fig. 2:
Fig. 2:
Changes in Relative Search Volume (RSV) for Sickle Cell Disease across the studied African countries. Each data point indicates the RSV measured on the specified day. RSV is the query share of a particular term for a given location and time period, normalized by the highest query share of that search term. Number of slopes present depends on the number of joinpoints identified. Joinpoints mark a statistically significant change in the linear slope of the trend in the studied time period. (A) RSV data for Cameroon. (B) RSV data for Ghana. (C) RSV data for Kenya. (D) RSV data for Nigeria. (E) RSV data for Tanzania. (F) RSV data for Uganda.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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