Loss of smell and taste: a new marker of COVID-19? Tracking reduced sense of smell during the coronavirus pandemic using search trends

ABSTRACT

Objectives

It has been demonstrated that reduction in smell and/or taste is the most predictive symptom in SARS-CoV-2/Covid-19 infection. We used Google Trends to analyze regional searches relating to loss of smell and taste across Italy, Spain, France, Brazil, and the United States of America and determined the association with reported Covid-19 cases.

Methods

In order to retrieve the data, we built a Python software program that provides access to Google Trends data via an application program interface. Daily COVID-19 case data for subregions of the five countries selected were retrieved from respective national health authorities. We sought to assess the association between raw search interest data and COVID-19 new daily cases per million for all regions individually.

Results

In total, we yielded 2188 sets of Google Trends data which included 548 time series of 4 anosmia and ageusia search concepts over the study period for 137 regions. These data indicated that differences in search interest for terms relating to anosmia and ageusia, between regions, is associated with geographical trends in new Covid-19 cases.

Conclusions

We feel that Google search trends relating to loss of smell can be utilized to identify potential Covid-19 outbreaks on a national and regional basis.

KEYWORDS:

• Smell
• olfaction Disorders
• anosmia
• aguesia
• taste
• search Engine
• Covid-19

Github repository

https://github.com/GeorgeCherry/anosmia_search_interest_covid-19

Declaration of interest

The authors have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.

Reviewer disclosures

Peer reviewers on this manuscript have no relevant financial or other relationships to disclose.

Author contributions

GC contributed to study design, developed the software which retrieved the data, analyzed the data and drafted the Methods and Results section of the manuscript. JR contributed to the study design and drafted the Introduction, Discussion, and Conclusion sections of the manuscript. MC, JL, ML, VL, and BNK revised the manuscript and approved the final version for publication.

Additional information

Funding

This paper was not funded.