key: cord-296821-qdhj9zj6
authors: Uvais, Nalakath A.
title: Interests in quitting smoking and alcohol during COVID‐19 pandemic in India: A Google Trends study
date: 2020-07-19
journal: Psychiatry Clin Neurosci
DOI: 10.1111/pcn.13118
sha: 
doc_id: 296821
cord_uid: qdhj9zj6

nan

It is a well established fact that, just like smoking, alcohol use is significantly associated with the risks for pneumonia [1, 2] . The negative effects of alcohol in the transmission and disease progression of viral infections are also well studied [3] . Recent studies have highlighted the negative association of smoking and prognosis in patients with COVID-19 [2, 4] . However, the effects of alcohol-related liver disease on prognosis of COVID-19 is still under evaluation [5] . In response to a fake news that alcohol give protection from COVID-19, WHO released detailed factsheet providing important information one should know about alcohol consumption and COVID-19 [6]. This document advised readers to avoid alcohol altogether to protect immune system and stay sober to act quickly and make decisions with a clear head, for oneself and others in family and community. Moreover, in an attempt to control the pandemic, Indian government implemented strict physical distancing measures and advised the public to remain indoors and also banned the sale of alcohol and tobacco since March 25, This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. 2020. The ban was very strict and no tobacco or alcohol was available legally to buy either directly from stores or online, and it extended to more than two months.

Many mental health specialists and public health experts appeared in television and wrote in news papers to sensitise the public to utilise this period to quit smoking and alcohol.

Google trend analysis during the lockdown period showed a sharp increase in Google searches on COVID and disinfection measures in India. This study aims to investigate the interest in quitting smoking and alcohol during the lockdown period in India since March 25 to know the effectiveness of public awareness measures conducted regarding the negative aspects of smoking and alcohol during COVID-19 pandemic. This methodology was adopted from a recent study with the understanding that a significant population of India search for health-related information online and Google Trend can inform regarding the collective health trends [7, 8] . As the interest in 'COVID' and 'hand sanitizer' increaded rapidly during March, we have examined the interest in quitting smoking and alcohol from 2nd February to 29 April 2020. Data were collected from Google Trends (trends.google.com), which provides information on how many 'hits' different words had on a given day on Google, which can be used as a measurement of public interest over time [9] . The highest interest on a search query is quantified as 100 relative search volume (RSV), decreasing to 0 RSV indicating no interest. We retrieved public query data from India for the following terms: 'how to quit smoking' and 'how to quit alcohol' between 2 February 2020 and 1 May 2020. We investigated whether there was an increased interest in quitting smoking in late Febrary, March, and April compared with the preceding weeks.

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The interest in the search term 'how to quit smoking' showed significant increase on 9th March (90 RSV) ant the interest in the search term reached 100 RSV on 19th April (figure 1). The interest in the search term 'how to quit alcohol' showed significant increase on 11th February (100 RSV). However, the interest for both the search terms was not stable over the study period (figure 1).

Our study results showed no consistent increase in the number of searches for quitting smoking or quitting alcohol on Google during the study period (February to May). A recent study analysing the Google trend regarding smoking cessation searches worldwide during the early months of the COVID-19 outbreak (9 January 2020 and 6 April 2020) also failed to show a tendency for increased interest in any of the key terms related to smoking cessation ('quit smoking', 'smoking cessation', 'help quit smoking' and 'nicotine gum') [8] . However, another study from Netherlands showed a significant increase in RSV one to four weeks after the introduction of the smoking ban in restaurants and bars in 2008, and also after the introduction of smoking cessation support in 2011 [10] . Our study results may indicate that there has been no significant increased interest in quitting smoking and alcohol, at least among the Indian population who use online resources for health-related information.

Our results further highlight the need for continuing public health efforts to sensitise Indian public regarding the negative effects of smoking and alcohol during COVID-19 pandemic. However, our study results were preliminary, and further research is needed to know the long-term trend and compare it to the results of other studies.

Disclosure Statement:

This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. The number of Google searches on 'COVID' and 'hand sanitizer' increased sharply worldwide in March. On the other hand, the interest in 'how to quit smoking' and 'how to quit alcohol' showed no consistent changes for increased interest.

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This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved

Web search queries for the terms 'COVID', 'hand sanitizer' , 'how to quit smoking' and 'how to quit alcohol'. The number of Google searches on 'COVID' and 'hand sanitizer' increased sharply worldwide in March. On the other hand, the interest in 'how to quit smoking' and 'how to quit alcohol


