TY - JOUR
T1 - Impact of the World Antimicrobial Awareness Week on public interest between 2015 and 2020
T2 - A Google Trends analysis
AU - Keitoku, Koichi
AU - Nishimura, Yoshito
AU - Hagiya, Hideharu
AU - Koyama, Toshihiro
AU - Otsuka, Fumio
N1 - Funding Information:
Funding: None. Conflict of interest: The authors declare no conflicts of interest in association with the present study. Author contributions: KK wrote the manuscript. YN wrote the manuscript, designed the study, and analyzed the data. HH proposed the study concept, designed the study, and analyzed the data. TK analyzed the data and critically revised the manuscript. FO supervised the research.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Author(s)
PY - 2021/10
Y1 - 2021/10
N2 - Objectives: To evaluate the impact of the World Antimicrobial Awareness Week (WAAW) on public awareness of antimicrobial resistance using Google Trends analysis. Methods: The impact of WAAW on public awareness of ‘antimicrobial resistance’ (AMR), ‘antibacterial’, and ‘antibiotics’ in Japan, the UK, the United States, and worldwide from 2015 to 2020 was analyzed, using the relative search volume (RSV) of Google Trends as a surrogate. A joinpoint regression analysis was performed to identify a statistically significant time point of a change in trend. Results: No joinpoints around WAAW were identified in Japan, the United Kingdom, or the United States from 2015 to 2020 with RSVs of ‘AMR’, whereas increasing RSVs were noted worldwide in 2017 and 2020. Further, there were decreasing RSVs of ‘antibiotics’ in the first half of 2020, which could be due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The study results suggest that WAAW did little to improve public awareness of AMR in the selected countries despite its contribution worldwide. Conclusions: This study implies that we need to develop a more effective method to improve public awareness to fight against AMR.
AB - Objectives: To evaluate the impact of the World Antimicrobial Awareness Week (WAAW) on public awareness of antimicrobial resistance using Google Trends analysis. Methods: The impact of WAAW on public awareness of ‘antimicrobial resistance’ (AMR), ‘antibacterial’, and ‘antibiotics’ in Japan, the UK, the United States, and worldwide from 2015 to 2020 was analyzed, using the relative search volume (RSV) of Google Trends as a surrogate. A joinpoint regression analysis was performed to identify a statistically significant time point of a change in trend. Results: No joinpoints around WAAW were identified in Japan, the United Kingdom, or the United States from 2015 to 2020 with RSVs of ‘AMR’, whereas increasing RSVs were noted worldwide in 2017 and 2020. Further, there were decreasing RSVs of ‘antibiotics’ in the first half of 2020, which could be due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The study results suggest that WAAW did little to improve public awareness of AMR in the selected countries despite its contribution worldwide. Conclusions: This study implies that we need to develop a more effective method to improve public awareness to fight against AMR.
KW - Antibiotics
KW - Antimicrobial resistance
KW - Google Trends
KW - Trend analysis
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U2 - 10.1016/j.ijid.2021.08.018
DO - 10.1016/j.ijid.2021.08.018
M3 - Article
C2 - 34391908
AN - SCOPUS:85113963186
SN - 1201-9712
VL - 111
SP - 12
EP - 20
JO - International Journal of Infectious Diseases
JF - International Journal of Infectious Diseases
ER -
