Characterizing the health and information-seeking behaviours of Ontarians in response to the Zika virus outbreak.

Objectives: The purpose of this study is to describe the impact of the 2016 Zika virus (ZIKV) outbreak on the health-seeking and information-seeking behaviours of Ontarians.

Methods: A timeline that included events and announcements from health agencies was constructed to describe the unfolding of the ZIKV outbreak between January 1 and September 30, 2016. In order to gain an understanding of the information and health-seeking behaviours of Ontarians, data from the following sources were collected and analyzed descriptively over time in 1-week intervals: trends in web searches, calls to a provincial telemedicine advice line, test submissions to the provincial laboratory and Zika-related media coverage.