Digital epidemiology: Can Google trends give some information about electronic cigarette usage in Turkey?

Abstract

Google Trends (GT) is a service provided by Google to display search trends on Google search. We analyzed the results GT using Turkish "electronic cigarettes" as search terms between 2011-2017, aimed to find out the changes between 2014 and 2017 and predicted the search interest in next two years in Turkey. We used "electronic cigarette" search terms in web, shopping and, youtube in GT between 2011 and 2017 in Turkey. Due to the prohibition of electronic cigarette use in June 2013 and the media had extensive data at that time, trend analysis has been performed since 2014. Examination of the graphs reveals that the relevance of the web is highest in May and June in 2011, and started to rise again in early 2016. Youtube interest has increased markedly since 2016. As a result of the time series analysis, 2018 and 2019, shopping and youtube interest will dramatically increase in 2018. The web interest will rise in 2018 but decline in 2019 (Figure). We found that searches on electronic cigarettes usage on the web, shopping and youtube were statistically higher in 2016 compared to 2011-2014 and 2017 years. Shopping and youtube interest is expected to increase in 2018, but interest in youtube and web use for such searches is expected to decrease in 2019. We believe that measures are inadequate for prohibiting the sales electronic cigarettes online and additional legal regulations are necessary.