Cardiovascular Incidence, Mortality and Web-Based Data in China

Abstract

Objective: To analyze whether there is a correlation between the disease burden of two high-risk cardiovascular diseases and the public internet search volumes, and to explore whether there is a regional difference in public search behaviors. Methods: The standard Boolean operators were used to determine the search terms for each cardiovascular disease. Spearman correlation analysis was used to explore the correlation among search index values, incidence and mortality rates of the two cardiovascular diseases. The time series decomposition method was used to extract the seasonality and trend of the search index. Results: The Baidu Index was highly correlated with the incidence and mortality of two cardiovascular diseases in China (coronary heart disease: r = 0.961, P < 0.001, stroke: r = 0.833, P < 0.001). The internet search behavior of cardiovascular disease presents a trend of seasonal fluctuations (increased in winter). The East China region has the largest number of searches for two cardiovascular diseases, and the least in the northeast and northwest regions. Conclusion: Search behavior reflects the public's perception of cardiovascular diseases from a different perspective. Researching internet search behaviors provides an innovative and real-time approach to monitor and estimate the disease burden of cardiovascular disease.