Measles Infoveillance and Infodemiology in Italy: A Study From 2013 to 2025
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: The increasing digitalization of information behaviors has created new op-portunities in public health, promoting the development of infodemiology and infoveillance as complements to traditional epidemiological surveillance. This study aimed to assess the correlation and temporal association between official measles surveillance data published by the Italian National Institute of Health (ISS), Google Trends search volumes, and Wikipedia page views re-lated to measles in Italy. A cross-sectional analysis was conducted using mea-sles cases reported in Italy from January 2013 to November 2025. Monthly data from Google Trends and Wikipedia were aggregated and compared with the monthly incidence reported in ISS bulletins. Cross-correlation analyses and linear regressions were performed to evaluate associations. The results showed a statistically significant and strong correlation (r=0.81) between Google Trends search volume for “Morbillo” and reported measles cases. Linear re-gression analyses demonstrated significant associations between digital indi-cators and official surveillance data, suggesting that online user activity closely reflects measles epidemiological trends. These findings indicate that Google Trends and Wikipedia may serve as useful and timely tools to com-plement traditional measles surveillance. Although caution is needed due to methodological limitations and potential information bias, integrating digital data could enhance early outbreak detection and support more rapid public health responses.
Source: Acta Paediatrica
DOI: 10.1111/apa.70722
Language: English
Subfield: Epidemiology
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $4,480
OpenAlex ID: W7201980970