Impact of the World Antimicrobial Awareness Week on public interest between 2015 and 2020: A Google Trends analysis.

Keitoku, Koichi; Nishimura, Yoshito; Hagiya, Hideharu; Koyama, Toshihiro; Otsuka, Fumio

OBJECTIVES To evaluate the impact of the World Antimicrobial Awareness Week on public awareness of antimicrobial resistance using Google Trends analysis. METHODS We analyzed the impact of WAAW on public awareness of "AMR," "antibacterial," and "antibiotics" in Japan, United Kingdom, United States, and worldwide from 2015 to 2020, using the relative search volume (RSV) of Google Trends as a surrogate. We performed a joinpoint regression analysis to identify a statistically significant time point of a change in trend. RESULTS No joinpoints around WAAW were identified in Japan, United Kingdom, and United States from 2015 to 2020 with RSVs of "AMR," whereas increasing RSVs were noted worldwide in 2017 and 2020. Further, there were decreasing RSVs of "antibiotics" in the first half of 2020, which could be due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Our results suggest that WAAW did little to improve the public awareness of AMR in the selected countries despite its contribution worldwide. CONCLUSIONS This study implies that we need to develop a more effective method to improve public awareness to fight against AMR.