PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Health and wealth connected?

By studying Google search data, researchers led by SDSU professor John Ayers discovered Americans had more health concerns during the recession

2014-01-08
(Press-News.org) Contact information: Beth Chee
bchee@mail.sdsu.edu
619-594-4563
San Diego State University
Health and wealth connected? By studying Google search data, researchers led by SDSU professor John Ayers discovered Americans had more health concerns during the recession SAN DIEGO, Calif. (Jan. 7, 2014)—We ring in the New Year with hopes of being healthy, wealthy, and wise. A new study led by San Diego State University School of Public Health research professor John W. Ayers suggests that from a public health standpoint, health and wealth may be connected.

Ayers and his team examined the Google search patterns of Americans during the recent Great Recession and discovered that during that period, people searched for keywords related to stress-related health symptoms much more frequently than they would have if the recession hadn't taken place.

"There were 200 million excess health queries during the Great Recession," Ayers said.

While it's impossible to ascertain the motives of everyone who searched those terms, it's likely that most of these excess symptom searches reflect people who experienced these symptoms and sought out health information, Ayers said.

By looking for these more-frequent-than-expected search terms and matching them up to world events, Ayers added, public health officials can conduct population health surveillance on an unprecedented scale.

In the new study, published today in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, Ayers and his colleagues identified five root words associated with psychosomatic symptoms: chest, headache, heart, pain, and stomach. Controlling for search terms that might return false positives (such as "tool chest"), the researchers looked at how frequently people in the United States searched for those root terms during the Great Recession, here defined as December 2008 through 2011, and came up with a list of 343 commonly searched symptoms.

Next, the researchers calculated what the values for those symptoms' search frequency over the same period would have been if there had been no Great Recession, correcting for such variables as the growing availability of Internet availability and increased usage.

Comparing those values to people's actual search behavior revealed that certain symptoms were searched for with far more frequency during the recession. Searches for "stomach ulcer symptoms" were 228 percent higher than would be expected and "headache symptoms" were 193 percent higher.

Aggregating the symptoms into themes, the researchers found that several broad categories of health concerns stuck out: Queries about headaches were 41 percent higher than expected; for hernia, 37 percent; for chest pain, 35 percent; and for arrhythmia, 32 percent. Back pain, gastric pain, joint pain, and toothache also popped up with greater-than-expected frequency among the search terms.

"The Great Recession undoubtedly got inside the body via the mind, namely through stress," Ayers said. "For example, the experiences of the unemployed may be stressful, but also those not directly affected by unemployment may become fearful of losing their jobs."

Benjamin Althouse, an epidemiologist and Omidyar Fellow with the Santa Fe Institute and one of the study's coauthors, said that by monitoring health-related search terms, public health officials could recognize burgeoning epidemics such as stress-related chest pain and direct resources to help people reduce their stress or take other precautionary measures. This technique is quicker, cheaper, and more efficient than traditional survey methodology, he added.

"The status quo approaches to public health surveillance are both contrived and expensive," Althouse said. "Internet search queries may be a significantly more precise metric, suggesting precisely when and how the population's health is changing."

Ayers added that search engines like Google could even interpret these searches and suggest links to Internet-based treatment options.

"The web is a stigma-reducing and cost-reducing venue to reach patients who search for, but do not otherwise receive, treatment because they cannot afford medications or copayments," Ayers said.

INFORMATION:

Ayers' research is supported by a Google.org grant, although Google.org played no role in designing or conducting this study.

About San Diego State University

San Diego State University is a major public research institution offering bachelor's degrees in 89 areas, master's degrees in 78 areas and doctorates in 21 areas. The university provides transformative experiences, both inside and outside of the classroom, for its 34,000 students. Students participate in research, international experiences, sustainability and entrepreneurship initiatives, and a broad range of student life and leadership opportunities. The university's rich campus life features opportunities for students to participate in, and engage with, the creative and performing arts, a Division I athletics program and the vibrant cultural life of the San Diego region. For more information, visit http://www.sdsu.edu.

END



ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Special focus issue on sepsis

2014-01-08
Special focus issue on sepsis A special issue on sepsis has been released by the publisher Landes Bioscience (Austin, TX USA). The articles contained in this special issue of the journal Virulence have been authored by world-class investigators and provide new insights ...

New research may boost drug efficacy in treating pulmonary arterial hypertension

2014-01-08
New research may boost drug efficacy in treating pulmonary arterial hypertension Intravenous/sublingual tissue-penetrating homing peptide enhances activity of other pulmonary drugs, according to new research published in the American Journal of Pathology Philadelphia, ...

8 million lives saved since surgeon general's tobacco warning 50 years ago

2014-01-08
8 million lives saved since surgeon general's tobacco warning 50 years ago Yale study on the impact of anti-smoking measures that began half a century ago A Yale study estimates that 8 million lives have been saved in the United States as a result of anti-smoking measures ...

Sun unleashes first X-class flare of 2014

2014-01-08
Sun unleashes first X-class flare of 2014 The sun emitted a significant solar flare peaking at 1:32 p.m. EST on Jan.7, 2014. This is the first significant flare of 2014, and follows on the heels of mid-level flare earlier in the day. Each flare ...

NASA's SDO sees giant January sunspots

2014-01-08
NASA's SDO sees giant January sunspots An enormous sunspot, labeled AR1944, slipped into view over the sun's left horizon late on Jan. 1, 2014. The sunspot steadily moved toward the right, along with the rotation of the sun, and now sits almost ...

AAS meeting highlights several new Hubble science findings

2014-01-08
AAS meeting highlights several new Hubble science findings NASA's Hubble Space Telescope is providing a new perspective on the remote universe, including new views of young and distant galaxies bursting with stars. Scientists described the findings ...

Nano-capsules show potential for more potent chemoprevention

2014-01-08
Nano-capsules show potential for more potent chemoprevention Researchers at the Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University have discovered a more effective drug delivery system using nanotechnology that could one day significantly affect cancer prevention. The ...

Nutrition guidelines needed for full-service restaurant chains

2014-01-08
Nutrition guidelines needed for full-service restaurant chains According to a new study in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior Philadelphia, PA, January 8, 2014 – Food prepared away from home is typically higher in calories and lower in nutrition than ...

Reactivation of the AKT survival pathway by ERK1/2

2014-01-07
Reactivation of the AKT survival pathway by ERK1/2 Why inhibition of both pathways is important In the study by Toulany et al., it was demonstrated for the first time that long term treatment with inhibitors of PI3K (as it is performed clinically) results in a reactivation ...

Inverse design: New route to design a practical invisibility cloak

2014-01-07
Inverse design: New route to design a practical invisibility cloak With the emergence of metamaterials and transformation optics in the past few years, invisibility has become a scientific possibility that has attracted sustainable research interest. Recently, a review ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Older teens who start vaping post-high school risk rapid progress to frequent use

Corpse flowers are threatened by spotty recordkeeping

Riding the AI wave toward rapid, precise ocean simulations

Are lifetimes of big appliances really shrinking?

Pink skies

Monkeys are world’s best yodellers - new research

Key differences between visual- and memory-led Alzheimer’s discovered

% weight loss targets in obesity management – is this the wrong objective?

An app can change how you see yourself at work

NYC speed cameras take six months to change driver behavior, effects vary by neighborhood, new study reveals

New research shows that propaganda is on the rise in China

Even the richest Americans face shorter lifespans than their European counterparts, study finds

Novel genes linked to rare childhood diarrhea

New computer model reveals how Bronze Age Scandinavians could have crossed the sea

Novel point-of-care technology delivers accurate HIV results in minutes

Researchers reveal key brain differences to explain why Ritalin helps improve focus in some more than others

Study finds nearly five-fold increase in hospitalizations for common cause of stroke

Study reveals how alcohol abuse damages cognition

Medicinal cannabis is linked to long-term benefits in health-related quality of life

Microplastics detected in cat placentas and fetuses during early pregnancy

Ancient amphibians as big as alligators died in mass mortality event in Triassic Wyoming

Scientists uncover the first clear evidence of air sacs in the fossilized bones of alvarezsaurian dinosaurs: the "hollow bones" which help modern day birds to fly

Alcohol makes male flies sexy

TB patients globally often incur "catastrophic costs" of up to $11,329 USD, despite many countries offering free treatment, with predominant drivers of cost being hospitalization and loss of income

Study links teen girls’ screen time to sleep disruptions and depression

Scientists unveil starfish-inspired wearable tech for heart monitoring

Footprints reveal prehistoric Scottish lagoons were stomping grounds for giant Jurassic dinosaurs

AI effectively predicts dementia risk in American Indian/Alaska Native elders

First guideline on newborn screening for cystic fibrosis calls for changes in practice to improve outcomes

Existing international law can help secure peace and security in outer space, study shows

[Press-News.org] Health and wealth connected?
By studying Google search data, researchers led by SDSU professor John Ayers discovered Americans had more health concerns during the recession