Internet search volume for chest pain during the COVID-19 pandemic

Jonathan L Ciofani; Daniel Han; Usaid K Allahwala; Kaleab N Asrress; Ravinay Bhindi

doi:10.1016/j.ahj.2020.09.005

Internet search volume for chest pain during the COVID-19 pandemic

Am Heart J. 2021 Jan:231:157-159. doi: 10.1016/j.ahj.2020.09.005. Epub 2020 Sep 30.

Authors

Jonathan L Ciofani¹, Daniel Han², Usaid K Allahwala³, Kaleab N Asrress⁴, Ravinay Bhindi³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Cardiology, Royal North Shore Hospital, Sydney, Australia. Electronic address: jcio7013@uni.sydney.edu.au.
² Department of Mathematics, University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom.
³ Department of Cardiology, Royal North Shore Hospital, Sydney, Australia.
⁴ Department of Cardiology, Bankstown-Lidcombe Hospital, Sydney, Australia.

Abstract

During the COVID-19 pandemic there has been a reduction in hospital admissions for acute myocardial infarction. This manuscript presents the analysis of Google Trends meta-data and shows a marked spike in search volume for chest pain that is strongly correlated with COVID-19 case numbers in the United States. This raises a concern that fear of contracting COVID-19 may be leading patients to self-triage using internet searches.

Publication types

Letter

MeSH terms

COVID-19* / epidemiology
COVID-19* / psychology
Chest Pain* / diagnosis
Chest Pain* / epidemiology
Chest Pain* / psychology
Communicable Disease Control / statistics & numerical data*
Correlation of Data
Diagnostic Self Evaluation*
Fear
Humans
Internet Use / statistics & numerical data*
Myocardial Infarction / epidemiology*
Patient Acceptance of Health Care / psychology
Patient Acceptance of Health Care / statistics & numerical data
SARS-CoV-2
Social Isolation
United States / epidemiology