COVID-19-Related Internet Search Patterns Among People in the United States: Exploratory Analysis.

BACKGROUND: The internet is a well-known source of information that patients use to better inform their opinions and to guide their conversations with physicians during clinic visits. The novelty of the recent COVID-19 outbreak has led patients to turn more frequently to the internet to gather more information and to alleviate their concerns about the virus. OBJECTIVE: The aims of the study were to (1) determine the most commonly searched phrases related to COVID-19 in the United States and (2) identify the sources of information for these web searches. METHODS: Search terms related to COVID-19 were entered into Google. Questions and websites from Google web search were extracted to a database using customized software. Each question was categorized into one of 6 topics: clinical signs and symptoms, treatment, transmission, cleaning methods, activity modification, and policy. Additionally, the websites were categorized according to source: World Health Organization (WHO), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), non-CDC government, academic, news, and other media. RESULTS: In total, 200 questions and websites were extracted. The most common question topic was transmission (n=63, 31.5%), followed by clinical signs and symptoms (n=54, 27.0%) and activity modification (n=31, 15.5%). Notably, the clinical signs and symptoms category captured questions about myths associated with the disease, such as whether consuming alcohol stops the coronavirus. The most common websites provided were maintained by the CDC, the WHO, and academic medical organizations. Collectively, these three sources accounted for 84.0% (n=168) of the websites in our sample. CONCLUSIONS: In the United States, the most commonly searched topics related to COVID-19 were transmission, clinical signs and symptoms, and activity modification. Reassuringly, a sizable majority of internet sources provided were from major health organizations or from academic medical institutions.

Genetic Factors Contribute to Risk for Neonatal Respiratory Distress Syndrome among Moderately Preterm, Late Preterm, and Term Infants.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the genetic contribution to risk for respiratory distress syndrome (RDS) among moderately preterm, late preterm, and term infants (estimated gestational age ≥32 weeks) of African- and European-descent. STUDY DESIGN: We reviewed clinical records for 524 consecutive twin pairs ≥32 weeks gestation. We identified pairs in which at least 1 twin had RDS (n = 225) and compared the concordance of RDS between monozygotic and dizygotic twins. Using mixed-effects logistic regression, we identified covariates that increased disease risk. We performed additive genetic, common environmental, and residual effects modeling to estimate genetic variance and used the ratio of genetic variance to total variance to estimate genetic contribution to RDS disease risk. RESULTS: Monozygotic twins were more concordant for RDS than dizygotic twins (P = .0040). Estimated gestational age, European-descent, male sex, delivery by cesarean, and 5-minute Apgar score each independently increased risk for RDS. After adjusting for these covariates, genetic effects accounted for 58% (P = .0002) of the RDS disease risk variance for all twin pairs. CONCLUSIONS: In addition to environmental factors, genetic factors may contribute to RDS risk among moderately preterm, late preterm, and term infants. Discovery of risk alleles may be important for prediction and management of RDS risk.