TY - JOUR
T1 - Changes in digital healthcare search behavior during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic
T2 - A study of six English-speaking countries
AU - van Kessel, Robin
AU - Kyriopoulos, Ilias
AU - Mastylak, Alicja
AU - Mossialos, Elias
PY - 2023/5/1
Y1 - 2023/5/1
N2 - Public interest is an important component influencing the likelihood of successfully implementing digital healthcare. The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic allowed us to assess how public interest in digital health changed in response to disruptions in traditional health services. In this study, we used a difference-in-differences approach to determine how digital healthcare search behavior shifted during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic compared to the same period in 2019 across six English-speaking countries: the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Australia, and Ireland. In most cases, we observed that the official declaration of the COVID-19 pandemic on 11 March 2020 was associated with a significant overall increase in the volume of digital healthcare searches. We also found notable heterogeneity between countries in terms of the keywords that were used to search for digital healthcare, which could be explained by linguistic differences across countries or the different national digital health landscapes. Since online searches could be an initial step in the pathway to accessing health services, future studies should investigate under what circumstances increased public interest translates into demand for and utilization of digital healthcare.
AB - Public interest is an important component influencing the likelihood of successfully implementing digital healthcare. The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic allowed us to assess how public interest in digital health changed in response to disruptions in traditional health services. In this study, we used a difference-in-differences approach to determine how digital healthcare search behavior shifted during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic compared to the same period in 2019 across six English-speaking countries: the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Australia, and Ireland. In most cases, we observed that the official declaration of the COVID-19 pandemic on 11 March 2020 was associated with a significant overall increase in the volume of digital healthcare searches. We also found notable heterogeneity between countries in terms of the keywords that were used to search for digital healthcare, which could be explained by linguistic differences across countries or the different national digital health landscapes. Since online searches could be an initial step in the pathway to accessing health services, future studies should investigate under what circumstances increased public interest translates into demand for and utilization of digital healthcare.
U2 - 10.1371/journal.pdig.0000241
DO - 10.1371/journal.pdig.0000241
M3 - Article
SN - 2767-3170
VL - 2
JO - PLOS Digital Health
JF - PLOS Digital Health
IS - 5
M1 - e0000241
ER -