European Online Search Patterns of Flu Vaccination During the Covid-19 Pandemic

Introduction: Google Trends is a data tool that measures the volume of online searches and has been proven to be associated with changes in the search for medical care.This study aims to identify a possible increase in searches about flu vaccination during the COVID-19. Methods:We performed an analysis on the "flu vaccine" (2016-2020).Relative search volume (0 to 100, highest interest in the query) was studied for two groups of countries, according to the incidence rate of COVID-19 (highest: Belgium, Czech Republic, Spain, Portugal, Denmark; lowest: Poland, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Greece). Results: Median search volume before COVID-19 varied between 0 (Czech Republic and Portugal) and 4 (Belgium and Poland) outside the flu vaccination season and between 0 (Czech Republic) and 31 (Greece) during the vaccination season.As COVID-19 settled, the online search increased outside vaccination season in every country (p<0.05),except in the Czech Republic (p=0.22).During vaccination season, the search also increased in every country (p<0.05)except Finland (p=0.21).As to the percentage of increase in search during vaccination season during COVID-19, the top 5 countries were: Czech Republic (5200%), Spain (484,6%), Poland (400,0%), Denmark (311,8%) and Portugal (280%). Conclusion:Flu vaccination is one of the most acknowledged public health measures and its online search peaks annually in most of the studied countries.The COVID-19 pandemic increased its search, predominantly in countries with higher incidence.