Authors
Jacobson N, Lekkas D, Price G, et al.
Purpose
Researchers examined the impact of COVID-19 stay-at-home orders on mental health-related Google search behavior for insight into the acute mental health consequences of stay-at-home orders in the United States during the coronavirus pandemic.
Methods
Researchers used mixed model analysis of hourly Google Trends data (11 p.m. March 16, 2020 to 10 p.m. March 23, 2020 EST) from over 10 million geolocated Google searches for 19 terms associated with common mental health symptoms to quantify changes in mental health-related search behavior before and after issuance of COVID-19 stay-at-home orders in 11 states (California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, and West Virginia) and Washington D.C, as compared with the 39 states that had not yet issued stay-at-home orders as of March 23, 2020.
Findings
- Up until several days (approx. 4) prior to issuance of stay-at-home orders in 11 states, Google searches for mental health symptoms surged (in particular, symptoms related to suicidal ideation, anxiety, negative thoughts, and sleep disturbances (12 of the 19 total search terms).
- A significant association emerged between issuance of stay-at-home orders and volume of Google searches for most of the symptom search terms (14 out of 19).
- Announcement of stay-at-home orders in 11 states and Washington D.C. appeared to immediately flatten the curve (i.e. induce non-linear change) of search volume for the 12 search terms related to suicidal ideation, anxiety, negative thoughts, and sleep disturbances (largest effect on suicidal ideation and anxiety).
- The flattening effect of stay-at-home orders on volume of Google searches appeared unique to mental health-related searches, compared with volume of Google searches for physical health symptoms both related to COVID-19 (15 terms) and unrelated to COVID-19 (22 terms).
Relevance
- Stay-at-home orders may have stabilized the volume of Google searches related to suicidal ideation, anxiety, negative thoughts, and sleep disturbances in the 11 states (and Washington, D.C.) that had issued stay-at-home orders as of March 23, 2020.
- Results suggest stay-at-home orders may have had a short-term protective effect against COVID-19-induced exacerbation of mental health symptoms.
- Future research could determine whether the observed plateau of mental health-related searches will maintain through duration of stay-at-home orders and the long-term mental health effects of COVID-19 and governmental responses to COVID-19.
Read More
Jacobson N, Lekkas D, Price G, et al. (2020). Flattening the mental health curve: COVID-19 stay-at-home orders result in alterations in mental health search behavior in the United States. PsyArXiv. doi:10.31234/osf.io/24v5b