An infodemiology study on breast cancer in Iran. Health information supply versus health information demand in PubMed and Google Trends
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/EL-03-2017-0062 |
| Published date | 03 April 2018 |
| Pages | 258-269 |
| Date | 03 April 2018 |
| Author | Shohreh SeyyedHosseini,Asefeh Asemi,Ahmad Shabani,Mozafar CheshmehSohrabi |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Information & communications technology,Internet |
An infodemiology study on
breast cancer in Iran
Health information supply versus health
information demand in PubMed
and Google Trends
Shohreh SeyyedHosseini,Asefeh Asemi,Ahmad Shabani and
Mozafar CheshmehSohrabi
Department of Knowledge and Information Science,
University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran
Abstract
Purpose –According to the studiesconducted in Iran, the breast cancer is the most frequent type of cancer
among women. This study aimed to explore the state of health information supply and demandon breast
cancer amongIranian medical researchers and Iranian Web usersfrom 2011 to 2015.
Design/methodology/approach –A mixed method research is conducted in this study. In qualitative
part, a focus group interview is applied to the usersto identify their selected keywords searched for breast
cancer in Google. The collected data areanalyzed using Open Code software. In quantitative part, data are
synthesized using the R software in two parts. First, users’internet information-seeking behavior (ISB) is
analyzed using the Google Trends outputs from 2011to 2015. Second, the scientific publicationbehavior of
Iranian breastcancer specialists are surveyed using PubMed during the period of the study.
Findings –The results show that the search volume index of preferred keywords on breast cancer has
increased from 4,119in 2011 to 4,772 in 2015. Also, the findings reveal that Iranian scholars had 873 scientific
papers on breast cancer in PubMed from 2011 to 2015. There was a significant and positive relationship
between IranianISB in the Google Trends and SPB of Iranian scholars on breastcancer in PubMed.
Research limitations/implications –This study investigates only the state of health information
supply and demand in PubMed and Google Trends and not additional databases often used for medical
studiesand treatment.
Originality/value –This study provides a road map forhealth policymakers in Iran to direct the breast
cancer studies.
Keywords Information-seeking behaviours, Health information need, Infodemiology,
Scholars’publication behaviour
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
The increasing number of modern information and communication technologies (ICTs) has
allowed what had formerly appeared to be uncountable to be accessed through new tools.
For instance, the term “health information distribution”monitors the health information
trends and gaps between information supply and demand by applying recent ICTs
(Eysenbach, 2006). Eysenbach (2002) introduced these types of studies as “infodemiology”
which can be defined as an analytical and methodological paradigm whereby a researcher
surveys effective factors on health information in the digital age. Infodemiology focuses on
describing the quality of health information accessed through the internet and the quality
indices and health information accuracy in the public health information environment
EL
36,2
258
Received18 March 2017
Revised30 May 2017
Accepted11 July 2017
TheElectronic Library
Vol.36 No. 2, 2018
pp. 258-269
© Emerald Publishing Limited
0264-0473
DOI 10.1108/EL-03-2017-0062
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