JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

The Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) caused by the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) is a leading cause of mortality in Africa. HIV/AIDS is among the greatest public health challenges confronting health authorities, with South Africa having the greatest prevalence of the disease in the world. There is little research into how Africans meet their health information needs on HIV/AIDS online, and this research gap impacts programming and educational responses to the pandemic. Google Trends shows a statistically significant decline in search interest for AIDS relative to HIV in South Africa. This trend mirrors progress on the ground in South Africa, significantly associated with a decline in AIDS-related deaths and people living longer with the HIV virus. This trend was also replicated on Wikipedia Afrikaans, where there was a greater interest in HIV than AIDS

Objective:

This paper reports on how in general, interest in search terms ‘’HIV’’ and ‘’AIDS’’ mirrors the decline in AIDS cases and the increase in people living with HIV in South Africa.

Methods:

Data on search trends on HIV and AIDS for South Africa was found using the search terms ‘’HIV’ and ‘’AIDS’’ (categories: health, web search), on Google Trends. This was compared with data on estimated adults and children living with HIV, and AIDS-related deaths in South Africa, from the Joint United Nations programme on HIV/AIDS, and also with search interest in the topics ‘’HIV’’ and ‘’AIDS’’ on Wikipedia Afrikaans, the most developed local language Wikipedia service in South Africa. Nonparametric statistical tests were conducted to support the trends and associations identified in the data.

Results:

Google Trends shows a statistically significant decline in search interest for AIDS relative to HIV in South Africa. This trend mirrors progress on the ground in South Africa, significantly associated with a decline in AIDS-related deaths and people living longer with the HIV virus. This trend was also replicated on Wikipedia Afrikaans, where there was a greater interest in HIV than AIDS. Nevertheless, there is an acknowledgement that the population of health information seekers on HIV/AIDS online may be quite different from the offline population. For instance, not everyone living with HIV/AIDS may be connected online or use search engines, and there is a difference in the number of people connected to the Internet over the years of the study 2004 – 2019. Hence, this paper is not an exact mapping of the online behaviour of all the people living with HIV/AIDS in South Africa

Conclusions:

This observed trend might be an indicator that multilateral efforts at combating HIV/AIDS, particularly through awareness raising and behavioural interventions in South Africa is bearing fruit, not just on the ground, but also reflected in the online information seeking on the pandemic.