Josep Maria Suelves
Researcher at the Behavioural Design Lab at the UOC eHealth Centre, member of the board of directors of the Public Health Society of Catalonia and the Balearic Islands, and vice-chairman of the National Committee for the Prevention of Smoking
The Internet facilitates access to valuable health-related content, including various resources on disease prevention and treatment, advice on diet and physical activity, and advertising for health products and services. It is also possible to find false information and content on the Internet that promotes harmful behaviours and may lead to the development of eating disorders or facilitate suicidal behaviour.
Some researchers have successfully used Google Trends and other tools that provide data on the evolution of queries to Google and other search engines to examine seasonal trends in different diseases. In the study just published in JAMA Health Forum, the authors found evidence that the broadcast of a television series featuring a character who used a benzodiazepine-type hypnotic drug was associated with changes in online searches for information about access to that substance.
The results of this study are undoubtedly interesting, although they do not reveal whether the increase in internet searches, apparently related to exposure to the content of a successful television series, was also associated with changes in the use of the drug under investigation or with other health consequences. Studies of this type are part of what has come to be known as “infodemiology”, which includes research into content published on the internet with the aim of improving public health, and have the advantage of providing rapid access to behavioural data that would be difficult and costly to obtain by other methods.