New Delhi | Jagran Lifestyle Desk: In a study which observed the pattern of Online searches and Google trends data over the period of a full year between 1st June 2019 and 31st May 2020, searches for “myocardial infarction” (heart attacks) were found reduced, at the same time “chest pain” searches rose by over 34 per cent during the pandemic period. The study was conducted by Minnesota, USA-based Mayo Clinic, who observed the search patterns for Italy, Spain, the UK and the US.
Before the pandemic began, both “myocardial infarction” as well as “chest pain” were searched in similar volumes, however the onset of pandemic changed the difference between two drastically with “chest pain” searches rising by at least 34 per cent.
The study found that with the pandemic, hospitalisations due to heart attacks reduced, but the searches for chest pain rose.
“This raises concern that people may have either misconstrued chest pain as an infectious symptom or actively avoided getting care due to COVID-19 concerns," Conor Senecal, a Mayo Clinic cardiology fellow, the first author on the study, which is published in JMIR Cardio, was quoted as saying by the news agency ANI.
The study also found that during the beginning of pandemic, the search queries such as “cough” and “fever” were more in number. But as the pandemic started picking up momentum, search queries related to the “chest pain” outpaced all others, and stayed high all through the month of May.
“Some of the rising searches, such as 'home remedies for chest pain' and 'natural remedies for chest pain' - both of which had a greater than 41 times increase - were surprising and provide insight into patients' possible avoidance of health care contact during the pandemic," Dr. Senecal added further.
The study highlights the importance of educating people about cardiovascular risks even during the pandemic period.
Posted By: Abhinav Gupta