UC Riverside

Suicide and fatal drug overdose are a major public health and social problem in the US. Google search term data may help researchers understand variations in area-level suicide and fatal drug overdose rates. The extent to which an area Googles about suicide and drug-related topics may be indicative of the overall social environment in the area. This project tests if there is an association between suicidal Google searches and the suicide rate, and also tests if there is an association between drug-related Google searches and the drug overdose rate. This project tests these associations using two-way fixed effects linear regression to control for unmeasured confounding, while controlling for the major predictors of each outcome. The unit of analysis are Designated Market Areas (n=209) and the analyses observe a seven-year period (2010-2016) for a total of 1,463 unique observations. Results show that suicidal Google searches are associated with suicide rates, and drug-related Google searches are associated with overdose rates. These findings demonstrate that Google searches may provide researchers with an additional lens into the innermost thoughts, attitudes, and behaviors of individuals at an area level. These findings suggest that Google search data can assist in real-time suicide and drug overdose monitoring and prevention.