Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Formative Research
Date Submitted: Jun 24, 2022
Open Peer Review Period: Jun 24, 2022 - Jul 8, 2022
Date Accepted: Oct 19, 2022
Date Submitted to PubMed: Feb 24, 2023
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
Hangover-related internet searches before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in England: an observational study
ABSTRACT
Background:
It is unclear whether heavy alcohol use and associated hangover symptoms changed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Objective:
To examine whether alcohol induced hangover-related internet searches (e.g. ‘how to cure a hangover?’) increased, decreased or remained the same in England before vs. during the COVID-19 pandemic (2020-2021) and during periods of national lockdown.
Methods:
Using historical data from Google Trends, we compared relative search volume (RSV) of hangover-related searches in the years before (2016-2019) vs. during the COVID-19 pandemic (2020-2021), as well as in periods of national lockdown vs. the same periods in 2016-2019.
Results:
There was no overall significant difference in RSV of hangover related terms in England during 2016-2019 vs. 2020-2021. However, during national lockdowns searches for hangover related terms were lower, particularly during the first national lockdown in England. In a comparison country that did not introduce a national lockdown in the early stages of the pandemic (Sweden) there was no significant decrease in hangover-related during the same time period.
Conclusions:
Hangover-related internet searches did not differ pre vs. during the COVID-19 pandemic in England but did reduce during periods of national lockdown Clinical Trial: The study protocol and analysis strategy was pre-registered on the Open Science Framework (DOI 10.17605/OSF.IO/2Y86E)
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