Has the pandemic enhanced and sustained digital health-seeking behaviour? A big data interrupted time-series analysis of Google Trends

Abstract

AbstractBackgroundDue to the emergency responses early in the pandemic, the use of digital health in healthcare increased abruptly, yet it remains unclear whether this introduction was sustainable on the long term. We explore trends in digital health-seeking behaviour as proxy for readiness to adopt digital health as a mainstream form of healthcare.MethodsWe use weekly Google Trends data from February 2019 to August 2021 in Canada, United States, United Kingdom, New Zealand, Australia, and Ireland. We used five keywords to monitor online search interests in Google Trends: online doctor, telehealth, online health, telemedicine, and health app. Data are analysed using an interrupted time-series analysis with break-points on 11 March 2020 and 20 December 2020.ResultsDigital health searches immediately increased in all countries after the pandemic announcement. There was some variance in what keywords were used per country. However, searches declined after this immediate spike, sometimes towards pre-pandemic levels. The exception is the search volume of health app, which showed to either remain stable or gradually increase during the pandemic.InterpretationOur findings suggest that digital health-seeking behavioural patterns associated with the pandemic are currently not sustainable. Further building of digital health capacity and development of robust digital governance and literacy frameworks remain crucial to more structurally facilitate digital health transformation across countries.FundingNot applicable.