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Mediterranean Diet Patterns in the Italian Population: A Functional Data Analysis of Google Trends

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Decisions and Trends in Social Systems

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems ((LNNS,volume 189))

Abstract

Internet search engines have become a popular and readily accessible source of information. Google Trends, by means of analyzing the popularity of search queries in Google Search, allows to provide deep insights into population behavior. Interestingly, Google is increasingly being used also to obtain health-related information, as well as to self-prescribe one’s dietary intake. In particular, we analysed the search traffic related to the keywords Mediterranean diet since it has always been very popular. More specifically, we propose to use Google Trends data as proxies for the interest in Mediterranean diet and to analyze them through the functional data analysis (FDA) approach.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University G. d’Annunzio of Chieti-Pescara, Pescara, Italy

    G. Caruso

  2. Roma Tre University, Rome, Italy

    F. Fortuna

Authors
  1. G. Caruso
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  2. F. Fortuna
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to G. Caruso .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology and Social Work, Faculty of Philosophy and Social-Political Sciences, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iaşi, Iaşi, Romania

    Daniela Soitu

  2. Department of Mathematics and Physics, Faculty of Military Technology, University of Defence, Brno, Czech Republic

    Šárka Hošková-Mayerová

  3. Department of Mathematics and Physics, University of Campania “Luigi Vanvitelli”, Caserta, Italy

    Fabrizio Maturo

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Caruso, G., Fortuna, F. (2021). Mediterranean Diet Patterns in the Italian Population: A Functional Data Analysis of Google Trends. In: Soitu, D., Hošková-Mayerová, Š., Maturo, F. (eds) Decisions and Trends in Social Systems. Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems, vol 189. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-69094-6_6

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