Impact of World Mental Health Day on online mental health information seeking

WWorld Mental Health Day (WMHD) is an important global public program celebrated annually on October 10 since 1992.¹ When launching this program, the World Federation for Mental Health’s goal was to promote awareness to change perceptions about mental illness. To achieve this goal, the organization selects a theme for the WMHD and distributes related public educational materials with the help of various organizations around the world. Most organizations working in the mental health sector also conduct various educational programs for the public on this day to raise awareness about mental health and influence health behaviors. A significant amount of manpower as well as financial, technological and media resources are used each year to promote JMHD. However, few studies have explored the impact of MWHD on influencing public attitudes towards mental health.² Systematically studying real-time information-seeking behavior on mental health using Google search trends following WHD celebrations can provide important insights into its impact and reach.³

The primary objective of this study was to explore changes in the relative search volume (RSV) of Google Trends on topics/terms associated with mental health in India. The RSV number indicates the proportion of popularity of a term compared to the peak popularity during the reference period for the selected region. An RSV of 100 indicates the peak popularity of a search term in Google during the specified time period for a particular region. Any value < 100 indicates relative search popularity compared to the maximum popularity of the search term.⁴ We also compared the study results with select Google Trends data from the United States and the world.

We hypothesized that as a result of WMHD programs, there might be more interest in the topic of “mental health,” which would manifest as an increase in internet searches. Additionally, increased awareness of mental health issues could influence Internet searches for important keywords indicating mental distress: depression, anxiety, insomniaAnd suicide.

METHODS

Google Trends (https://support.google.com/trends/) was searched for the keywords suicide, schizophrenia, depression, anxietyAnd insomnia and the theme “mental health”. The data was accessed and downloaded from Google Trends on October 30, 2022. Search location included India and USA for mental health related keywords and India, USA United and the world for the research topic “mental health”. The timescale selected for each Google Trends query was 14 days, which is 7 days before WMHD 2022 and 7 days after WMHD 2022 (which included the WMHD date).

The difference between Google Trends RSV data was analyzed using t testing and one-way analysis of variance in SPSS version 21 (SPSS Inc, Armonk, New York). The results were considered significant if the P. the value was < 0.05.

RESULTS

There was no significant increase in RSV for the search topic “mental health” during the 7 days following the celebration of WMD in India (16 vs. 27, P. = 0.40), the United States (82.42 against 61.43, P.= 0.13), or in the world (30.57 against 41.71, P. = 0.32) compared to RSV during the 7 days preceding WMHD. There was no significant difference in RSV during the 7 days following MWHD in India, the United States, or worldwide (P. = 0.11).

A significant reduction in RSV was observed during the 7 days following the WMD celebration in India (88.14 versus 53.86, P. = 0.02) for the search term suicide. There were no significant differences for other search terms between the 2 periods in India or the United States. The results are summarized in Table 1. There was a significant difference in RSV for the search term suicidebetween India and the United States during the 7 days following the celebration of the JMHD (53.86 against 89.86, P.= 0.01). There was no significant difference for other search terms between India and the United States during the 7 days following the WHD celebration. The results are summarized in Table 2.

DISCUSSION

This study failed to show a significant impact of WMH celebrations on online mental health information-seeking behaviors in India, the United States, or globally. Likewise, a study² Exploring the impact of World Public Health Days on online health information-seeking behavior revealed no significant increase in RSV for the search topic “mental health” for Chile, Brazil or Colombia after the MWM. Another similar study⁴ from the Arabian Peninsula also reported no significant increase in RSV in Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman or Qatar. The lack of increase in RSV for mental health search terms after WMHD may indicate its lack of impact in influencing online mental health information seeking at the population level. However, it may also reflect changes in population behavior following the WHD celebrations, during which, instead of searching the Internet, people directly contacted their health care providers for help after becoming more aware of their mental health issues. Another reason could be that people were accessing information related to mental health from social media sites where materials aimed at raising awareness about mental health among the general public were frequently released by various organizations as part of the celebrations of the mental health. JMMH.

Studies^2.5 also reported a significant increase in RSV for the search topic “mental health” for the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Uruguay and Nicaragua, associated with WMD celebrations, but such an increase in interest of the public for seeking information online about mental health was very short-lived. There is a need to systematically investigate factors associated with sustained low interest in online mental health information seeking after MMT.

This study also found a significant reduction in research on suicides in India after MWHD. This may indicate that suicidal ideation has decreased significantly among the Indian population following various programs associated with the celebration of WHD such as awareness campaigns and educational programs, suggesting the positive impact of the JMHD on the Indian population.⁶ There is a need to further explore this important finding using better research methodologies to understand the correlation between lower online interest in the search term. suicideand actual suicide ideation or attempts in India.

CONCLUSION

This study failed to find a significant impact of WMHD on online mental health information-seeking behavior, with the exception of suicide. However, future well-conducted research is needed to understand population mental health information-seeking behavior after MWH in real-world settings and the implications of reducing RSV for suicide in predicting behavior. suicidal at the population level.

Item information

Published online: August 8, 2023. https://doi.org/10.4088/PCC.22br03444
© 2023 Physicians Postgraduate Press, Inc.
CNS Disorder Prim Care Companion 2023;25(4):22br03444
Submitted : November 2, 2022; accepted February 15, 2023.
To quote: Uvais NA, Vaseel M, Jalal J et al. The impact of World Mental Health Day on online mental health information-seeking behavior in India: A Google Trends study. CNS Disorder Prim Care Companion.2023;25(4):22br03444.
Author affiliations: Department of Psychiatry, Iqraa International Hospital and Research Centre, Calicut, Kerala, India (Uvais); Rythm Comprehensive Mental Health Program: an initiative of IQRAA Hospital, India (Vaseel, Jalal, Krishna, Febina).
Corresponding author: NA Uvais, MBBS, DPM, Iqraa International Hospital and Research Centre, Calicut, Kerala, India (druvaisna@gmail.com).
Relevant financial relationships: None.
Funding/Support: None.