Seasonality in Seeking Mental Health Information on Google
American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Volume 44, Issue 5 , Pages 520-525, May 2013
John W. Ayers, PhD, MA. Benjamin M. Althouse, ScM , Jon-Patrick Allem, MA , J. Niels Rosenquist, MD, PhD , Daniel E. Ford, MD, MPH
Background” Population mental health surveillance is an important challenge limited by resource constraints, long time lags in data collection, and stigma. One promising approach to bridge similar gaps elsewhere has been the use of passively generated digital data.
Purpose: This article assesses the viability of aggregate Internet search queries for real-time monitoring of several mental health problems, specifically in regard to seasonal patterns of seeking out mental health information.
Methods: All Google mental health queries were monitored in the U.S. and Australia from 2006 to 2010. Additionally, queries were subdivided among those including the terms ADHD (attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder); anxiety; bipolar; depression; anorexia or bulimia (eating disorders); OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder); schizophrenia; and suicide. A wavelet phase analysis was used to isolate seasonal components in the trends, and based on this model, the mean search volume in winter was compared with that in summer, as performed in 2012.
Results: All mental health queries followed seasonal patterns with winter peaks and summer troughs amounting to a 14% (95% CI=11%, 16%) difference in volume for the U.S. and 11% (95% CI=7%, 15%) for Australia. These patterns also were evident for all specific subcategories of illness or problem. For instance, seasonal differences ranged from 7% (95% CI=5%, 10%) for anxiety (followed by OCD, bipolar, depression, suicide, ADHD, schizophrenia) to 37% (95% CI=31%, 44%) for eating disorder queries in the U.S. Several nonclinical motivators for query seasonality (such as media trends or academic interest) were explored and rejected.
Conclusions: Information seeking on Google across all major mental illnesses and/or problems followed seasonal patterns similar to those found for seasonal affective disorder. These are the first data published on patterns of seasonality in information seeking encompassing all the major mental illnesses, notable also because they likely would have gone undetected using traditional surveillance.
Notes on graphs
- Blue = US, Red = Australia
- 5 sinusoids = 5 years of data for each country
- Numbers at bottom of graph = weeks into the year for each set of sinusoids
The variation across the 5 years is shown in ( ) and by the length of the horizonal line
Entire set of graphs
Eating Disorders: large change with season
Schizophrenia: large change with season, consistent from year to year
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See also MedicalNewsToday on this study
all mental health searches lower in summer
Mental Health | US | Australia |
Eating disorder | 37% | 42% |
Schizophrenia | 37% | 36%. |
Bipolar | 16% | 17% |
ADHD | 28% | 31% |
OCD | 18% | 15%. |
Suicide | 24% and 29% | 17% |
Anxiety | 7% | 15% |
PDF is attached at the bottom of this page
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Fewest Google searches for Mental Health when there is lots of vitamin D from the sun – May 201318294 visitors, last modified 29 Apr, 2013, This page is in the following categories (# of items in each category)Attached files
ID Name Uploaded Size Downloads 2380 Schiz.jpg admin 18 Apr, 2013 45.84 Kb 1721 2379 Eating.jpg admin 18 Apr, 2013 47.41 Kb 1723 2378 Season all.jpg admin 18 Apr, 2013 76.98 Kb 1675 2377 Mental Season.pdf admin 18 Apr, 2013 221.32 Kb 1441