Infodemiology of RSV in Italy (2017–2022)

An Alternative Option for the Surveillance of Incident Cases in Pediatric Age

Bibliographic Data

ID15714484
AuthorsMatteo Riccò (0000-0002-6525-2159, Azienda Sanitaria Unità Locale di Reggio Emilia, corresponding author), Antonio Baldassarre (0000-0002-6124-3570, University of Florence), Sandro Provenzano (0000-0001-7179-7246, Conservatorio di Musica Antonio Scontrino Trapani), Silvia Corrado (University of Udine), Milena Pia Cerviere (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore), Salvatore Parisi (0000-0002-7354-4573, Sanofi (Italy)), Federico Marchesi (0000-0001-8236-3224, University of Parma), Marco Bottazzoli (0000-0003-0888-9521, Department of Otorhinolaryngology, APSS Trento, 31223 Trento, Italy)
Year2022
Volume9
Issue12
Pages1984-1984
Publication date2022-12-16
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueChildren (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2227-9067 • E-ISSN: 2227-9067
PublisherMultidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (PUBLISHER • CH)
DOI10.3390/children9121984
PMID36553427
OpenAlexW4311886130
LanguageEN
References cited94

The aim of this study was to evaluate whether or not online queries for Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) retrieved by means of Google TrendsTM and the Italian Wikipedia analysis program mirror the occurrence of influenza-like illnesses (ILI), as reported by the Italian Influenza Surveillance network (InfluNet). Estimated rates for ILI in the general population and in the age groups 0−4 years and 5−14 years were obtained for the influenza seasons 2017−2018 to 2020−2021. Similarly, a weekly fraction of online searches was retrieved for a series of terms associated with Respiratory Syncytial Virus. Next, trends for daily visualization of Italian Wikipedia Pages for Human Respiratory Syncytial Virus, Pneumonia, Bronchiolitis, Influenza, and Respiratory Failure were similarly retrieved. The correlation of all search terms with ILI was analyzed by means of Spearman’s rank correlation analysis. Among search terms associated with the clinical diagnosis of Respiratory Syncytial Virus infections, the occurrence of ILI was highly correlated only with Bronchiolitis in the age group 0−4 years (β 0.210, p = 0.028), while more generic search terms, such as Bronchitis, fever, influenza, and Pneumonia, were identified as effective predictors of ILI, in general and by age groups. In a regression analysis modeled with ILIs as the outcome variable, daily visualizations for the Wikipedia pages on Bronchiolitis were identified as negative predictors for ILI in general (β = −0.152, p = 0.032), ILI in age group 0−4 years (β = −0.264, p = 0.001) and 5−14 years (β = −0.202, p = 0.006), while Influenza was characterized as a positive effector for ILIs in the age group 5−14 years (β = 0.245, p = 0.001). Interestingly, not only were the search terms extensively correlated with one another, but all of them were also characterized by autocorrelation through a Durbin-Watson test (all estimates DW < 2.0) In summary, our study identified a complicated pattern of data visualization as no clear association between rates of ILI in pediatric age group 0−4 and 5 to 14 years was actually found. Finally, our data stress that the infodemiology option may be quite problematic for assessing the time trend of RSV infections in Italy until more appropriate reporting will be made available, by sharing estimates of Lower Respiratory Tract Infections, and through a more accurate characterization of younger age groups

Age groups · Bronchiolitis · Bronchitis · Environmental health · Pneumonia · Population · Rank correlation · Respiratory system · Virus · Data-Driven Disease Surveillance · Demography · Influenza Virus Research Studies · Medicine · Respiratory viral infections research · Internal Medicine · Pediatrics · Virology

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