Information in Spanish on the Internet about the Prevention of COVID-19

Hernández-García, Ignacio; Giménez-Júlvez, Teresa

Objective. Our objective was to analyze the evolution of the information in Spanish online about the prevention of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Methods. On 1 March and 13 July 2020, two searches were conducted on Google with the terms “Prevencion COVID-19” and “Prevencion Coronavirus”. In each stage, a univariate analysis was performed to study the association of the authorship and country of origin with the basic recommendations to avoid COVID-19 provided by the World Health Organization (WHO). Results. A total of 120 weblinks were evaluated. The recommendation found most frequently in both stages was “wash your hands frequently” (93.3% in March vs. 90.0% in July). There was a significant increase in the detection of the following recommendations: “avoid touching your face” (56.7% vs. 80.0%) and “stay at home if you feel unwell” (28.3% vs. 63.3%). Weblinks of official public health organizations more frequently provided the advice to “seek medical advice if you develop a fever/cough or have difficulty breathing”. Furthermore, in July, such weblinks provided recommendations to “avoid touching your face” and “maintain a distance of one meter” more frequently than the mass media (OR = 11.5 and 10.5, respectively). In March, the recommendation to “maintain a distance of at least 1 m” was associated with the weblinks from countries with local transmission/imported cases (OR = 8.1). Different/ambiguous information regarding the WHO recommendations was detected in four weblinks. Conclusion. The availability of information in Spanish online on basic prevention measures has improved over time, although there is still room for improvement. It is necessary to promote the use of the websites of official public health organizations among Spanish-speaking users.