Users’ information-seeking and information-sharing behavior provide socioeconomic and psychological insights that are useful to understand regional trends in health. We study the spatial variations in aggregate Google Search and Twitter trends across 208 Designated Market Areas (DMAs) in the United States and their association with regional health. We find that information-seeking behavior from Google Trends data is better able to predict the prevalence of non-communicable diseases and impending behavioral risks, with an average gain of 19% over sociodemographics and regional controls, and of 15% over information-sharing behavior on Twitter. Both kinds of digital traces track cultural and socioeconomic contexts; however, information-seeking behavior provides insights into personal habits, while information-sharing provides psychological insights. Our findings can be applied to design online and offline human-centered health interventions that target at-risk populations through a knowledge of their lifestyle and concerns.

用户的信息寻求和信息共享行为提供了社会经济和心理洞察力，有助于理解健康的区域趋势。我们研究了美国208个指定市场区域（DMA）中Google搜索和Twitter总体趋势的空间变化及其与区域健康的关系。我们发现，从Google趋势数据中获取信息的行为可以更好地预测非传染性疾病的流行和即将发生的行为风险，与社会人口统计学和区域控制相比，平均增长19％，与信息共享行为相比，平均增长15％在Twitter上。两种数字踪迹都跟踪文化和社会经济环境。但是，信息寻求行为提供了对个人习惯的洞察力，而信息共享则提供了心理洞察力。