Health is a rising Trend on Internet
As we already noticed in a previous post about Arab health on the Net, with Google Insights For Search, it is possible to compare search volume patterns across specific regions, categories, time frames and properties. You can view search trends about health from 2004 to present.
The first point is that the interest of a trend over time is different depending on the language used. Albeit the interest for “health” [in English] and “santé” [in French] is declining from 2004, the term “الصحة” [in Arabic] is increasing. Seemingly, the need of information about health in MENA is very recent and on the rise, albeit in Western countries where the trends are declining the Internet users less and less care about health topics.
Starting from that first observation, two main factors could explain the rising trends of health topics on Arab Internet. On the one hand, the prevalences of chronic diseases are soaring and constitute a preoccupation among Arab populations; on the other hand, the new technologies and the Internet have markedly grown during the last decades. For instance, according to Pr. Ajlouni, in a presentation about Diabetes among Jordanians, the diabetes prevalence in Maghreb is around 20 percent. But in the Gulf countries, the prevalences are worrying: 32 percent in the UAE, 30 percent in Qatar, 40 percent in KSA. Besides, the ways to acquire information about these chronic diseases are evenly growing: whereas the first connection to Internet where possible only during the 1990′s1, Internet penetration in the arab world grew from 15 million users in 2006 to 70 million in 2011. And is expected to reach 150 million users by 2015, according to Discover Digital Arabia.
Bridging the Information Gap
This map reveals the gap between high prevalence of diabetes in Arab world and the weakness of volume search about diabetes on Google.
As we previously noticed in an article about the Arabs and their health on Internet, in MENA, the proportion of Internet users interested in health are mainly from Gulf countries (Iraq, Qatar, Bahrain between 10 and 14%). The top 10 keywords in English trends about “health” are institutional searches2 but also deal with obesity or overweight (“health nutrition”, “weight loss”, “cholesterol”) and dental care (“dental”). However, for the Maghreb countries, the trends appear like in Europe : “health”, “hospital”, “insurance”, “expenditure”, “health magazine”.
Google Trends on the Arabic language are also interesting. The top 10 searches around the term “health” reveal two clear trends: the institutional one3, the other for discussion forums4. The language used (English, French or Arabic) is revealing a social behavior on the Net. Indeed, the terms linked with each trend are very different from English to Arabic. The trends around the terms “health care” [in English] and “الرعاية الصحية” [in Arabic] are poles apart. The English researches on Google about “health care” are dealing with institutional interests5; albeit trends in Arabic language are more traditional6.
Primary health care volume search is significant in the Arab world, whereas the trends in Western countries [English & French languages] are more concerning public health and institutions. Is the traditional medicine the future of Arab health?
- Tunisia was the first Arab country to link to the Internet in 1991; followed by Egypt, Turkey, and the UAE in 1993, Jordan in 1994, Syria and Saudi Arabia in the late 1990′s. [↩]
- “saudi health”, “health gov bh”, “health department”, “health plan” [↩]
- “Ministry of Health,” “WHO”, “Website of the Ministry” [↩]
- “Website health”, “health Forum”, “health discussions”, “site about health” [↩]
- “care and health”, “home health care”, “united health care”, “health care”, “healthcare reform”, “health care bill”, “healthcare insurance”, “health insurance”, “health care jobs”, “healthcare services” [↩]
- “Primary Health Care”, “care in Islam”, “Primary Health Care”, “health care center”, “Management of health care”, “The concept of health care”, “home care”, “definition of health care”, ”quality health care” [↩]
