Effects of online health information-seeking behavior on sexually transmitted disease in China: An infodemiology study based on the Baidu index (Preprint)

BACKGROUND Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are a serious issue worldwide. With the popularity of the internet, online health information-seeking behavior (OHISB) has been widely adopted to improve health and prevent disease. OBJECTIVE This study aimed to investigate the short-term and long-term effects of different types of OHISBs on STIs, including syphilis, gonorrhea, and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) due to human immune deficiency virus (HIV) based on the Baidu index. METHODS Multisource big data were collected, including case numbers of STIs, search queries based on the Baidu index, and provincial socioeconomic and medical data from 2011-2018 in mainland China. We categorized OHISBs into four types: concept, symptoms, treatment, and prevention. Before and after controlling for socioeconomic and medical conditions, we applied multiple linear regression to analyze associations between the Baidu search index (BSI) and Baidu search rate (BSR) and STI case numbers. In addition, we compared the effects of different types of OHISBs and performed time-lag cross-correlation analyses to investigate the long-term effect of OHISB. RESULTS The distributions of both STI case numbers and OHISBs presented variability. For each type of OHISB for each disease, the BSI was positively related to the case number, while the BSR was significantly negatively related to the case number (p<0·05). Searches for prevention tended to have a larger impact, while searches for treatment tended to have a smaller impact, and such impacts were increased with increasing lag years. CONCLUSIONS Our study validated the various associations between OHISBs and STI case numbers. It may provide insights into how to utilize internet big data to better achieve disease surveillance and prevention goals.