Usage patterns of oral H1-antihistamines in 10 European countries: A study using MASK-air® and Google Trends real-world data

World Allergy Organization Journal

Bernardo Sousa-Pinto, MD PhD¹  Ludger Klimek, MD PhD¹  Josep M. Anto, MD PhD²  Torsten Zuberbier, MD PhD²  Jean Bousquet, MD PhD³  João Almeida Fonseca, MD PhD⁴  Aziz Sheikh, MD PhD⁵  Rafael José Vieira, MD⁵ 

[1] CINTESIS — Center for Health Technology and Services Research, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal;RISE—Health Research Network, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal;Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain;ISGlobal, Barcelona Institute for Global Health, Barcelona, Spain;MEDCIDS—Department of Community Medicine, Information and Health Decision Sciences, Faculty of Medicine of the University of Porto, Porto, Portugal;

关键词: Antihistamines;    Allergic rhinitis;    Infodemiology;   

DOI  :  

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Real-world data represent an increasingly important source of knowledge in health care. However, assessing their representativeness can be challenging. We compared (i) real-world data from a mobile app for allergic rhinitis (MASK-air®) on the usage of oral H1-antihistamines from 2016 to 2020 in 10 European countries with (ii) Google Trends data on the relative volume of searches for such antihistamines. For each country, we sorted 5 different oral H1-antihistamines by their frequency of use and volume of searches. We found perfect agreement on the order of antihistamine use in MASK-air® and in Google Trends searches in 4 countries (France, Germany, Sweden, and the United Kingdom). Different levels of agreement were observed in the remaining countries (kappa coefficient from −0.50 to 0.75). Oral H1-antihistamine data from Google Trends and MASK-air® were consistent with nationwide medication sales data from France, Germany, and the United Kingdom. These results suggest that MASK-air® data may be consistent with other sources of real-world data, although assessing the representativeness of their users may require further studies.

【 授权许可】

Unknown