So we agreed that we needed to find more data over time, and that maybe changes in the factors we have found to be influencing the spread of heartworm could give us more insight. We turned to Google Trends as a way to see what is being searched on the Internet and how this could impact our thinking behind the spread of heartworm.
We agreed upon our search terms (i.e. heartworm, mosquitoes, hurricanes, temperature increase, etc.) and came up with interesting ideas:
From all this research, we're thinking that looking at Google Trends is interesting, although it's not giving us the scholarly information we need to answer all our questions we've got about heartworm. Students are requesting more information (and better information, too). Research time it is!
We agreed upon our search terms (i.e. heartworm, mosquitoes, hurricanes, temperature increase, etc.) and came up with interesting ideas:
- People tend to search for heartworm during the warmer months.
- People in the southern states look up heartworm more often than people in other parts of the country.
- We saw a spike in people looking up heartworm at the same time as mosquitoes, and these things are searched for more often when hurricanes are also researched.
From all this research, we're thinking that looking at Google Trends is interesting, although it's not giving us the scholarly information we need to answer all our questions we've got about heartworm. Students are requesting more information (and better information, too). Research time it is!
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