Neurology International (Feb 2021)

Public Interest in Neurological Diseases on Wikipedia during Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Pandemic

  • Stela Rutovic,
  • Ana Isabel Fumagalli,
  • Inna Lutsenko,
  • Francesco Corea

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/neurolint13010006
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 13, no. 1
pp. 59 – 63

Abstract

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Infodemiology is a research discipline that investigates parameters of information distribution in order to support public health and public policy. Wikipedia, a free online encyclopedia, is commonly used as a source of information for infodemiological studies. Using Pageviews analysis, we descriptively assessed the total monthly number of views of the Wikipedia articles in English describing main neurological diseases in the period from January 2018 to July 2020. Our results show a general trend of a decrease in interest in neurological disease-related pages throughout years and especially during the burst of interest towards coronavirus. The monitoring of infodemiological indicators shall be prioritized to reshape global campaigns and tailored advocacy programs.

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