
Comparing Medical Term Usage Patterns of Professionals and Search Engine and Community Question Answering Service Users in Japan: Log Analysis
Author(s) -
Kazuya Taira,
Taichi Murayama,
Sumio Fujita,
Mikiko Ito,
Kei Kamide,
Eiji Aramaki
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
jmir. journal of medical internet research/journal of medical internet research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.446
H-Index - 142
eISSN - 1439-4456
pISSN - 1438-8871
DOI - 10.2196/13369
Subject(s) - search engine , online search , word lists by frequency , the internet , information retrieval , service (business) , medicine , psychology , computer science , family medicine , internet privacy , world wide web , key (lock) , business , computer security , marketing
Background Despite increasing opportunities for acquiring health information online, discussion of the specific words used in searches has been limited. Objective The aim of this study was to clarify the medical information gap between medical professionals and the general public in Japan through health information–seeking activities on the internet. Methods Search and posting data were analyzed from one of the most popular domestic search engines in Japan (Yahoo! JAPAN Search) and the most popular Japanese community question answering service (Yahoo! Chiebukuro). We compared the frequency of 100 clinical words appearing in the clinical case reports of medical professionals (clinical frequency) with their frequency in Yahoo! JAPAN Search (search frequency) logs and questions posted to Yahoo! Chiebukuro (question frequency). The Spearman correlation coefficient was used to quantify association patterns among the three information sources. Additionally, user information (gender and age) in the search frequency associated with each registered user was extracted. Results Significant correlations were observed between clinical and search frequencies ( r =0.29, P =.003), clinical and question frequencies ( r =0.34, P =.001), and search and question frequencies ( r =0.57, P <.001). Low-frequency words in clinical frequency (eg, “hypothyroidism,” “ulcerative colitis”) highly ranked in search frequency. Similarly, “pain,” “slight fever,” and “numbness” were highly ranked only in question frequency. The weighted average of ages was 34.5 (SD 2.7) years, and the weighted average of gender (man –1, woman +1) was 0.1 (SD 0.1) in search frequency. Some words were specifically extracted from the search frequency of certain age groups, including “abdominal pain” (10-20 years), “plasma cells” and “inflammatory findings” (20-30 years), “DM” (diabetes mellitus; 30-40 years), “abnormal shadow” and “inflammatory findings” (40-50 years), “hypertension” and “abnormal shadow” (50-60 years), and “lung cancer” and “gastric cancer” (60-70 years). Conclusions Search and question frequencies showed similar tendencies, whereas search and clinical frequencies showed discrepancy. Low-clinical frequency words related to diseases such as “hypothyroidism” and “ulcerative colitis” had high search frequencies, whereas those related to symptoms such as “pain,” “slight fever,” and “numbness” had high question frequencies. Moreover, high search frequency words included designated intractable diseases such as “ulcerative colitis,” which has an incidence of less than 0.1% in the Japanese population. Therefore, it is generally worthwhile to pay attention not only to major diseases but also to minor diseases that users frequently seek information on, and more words will need to be analyzed in the future. Some characteristic words for certain age groups were observed (eg, 20-40 years: “cancer”; 40-60 years: diagnoses and diseases identified in health examinations; 60-70 years: diseases with late adulthood onset and “death”). Overall, this analysis demonstrates that medical professionals as information providers should be aware of clinical frequency, and medical information gaps between professionals and the general public should be bridged.