Fiction, Falsehoods, and Few Facts: Cross-Sectional Study on the Content-Related Quality of Atopic Eczema-Related Videos on YouTube.
J Med Internet Res
; 22(4): e15599, 2020 04 24.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-32329744
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
In recent years, YouTube has become a recognized source of medical information for health care consumers. Although YouTube has advantages in this context, there are potential dangers as videos may contain nonscientific, misleading, or even harmful information.OBJECTIVE:
As little is known about YouTube as a source of information on atopic dermatitis (AD), we investigated the content-related quality of AD videos and their perception among YouTube users.METHODS:
The quality of the 100 most viewed AD videos was assessed by using the Global Quality Scale (GQS) and the DISCERN instrument. Videos were classified as "useful," "misleading," and "potentially harmful," and the correlations of viewers' ratings (likes) with the GQS and DISCERN scores were assessed.RESULTS:
Among the 100 videos, 68.0% (68/100) and 62.0% (62/100) were of poor and very poor scientific quality, respectively. Additionally, 32.0% (32/100) of the videos were classified as useful, 48.0% (48/100) were classified as misleading, and 34.0% (34/100) were classified as potentially harmful. Viewers' ratings did not correlate with the GQS and DISCERN scores. Overall, 50.0% (50/100) of the videos were posted by private individuals and promoters of complementary/alternative treatments, 42.0% (42/100) by therapeutical advertisers, and only 8.0% (8/100) by nonprofit organizations/universities.CONCLUSIONS:
Our study demonstrated that two-thirds of the videos analyzed were below acceptable medical quality standards and that many videos were disseminating misleading or even dangerous content. Subjective and anecdotal content was overrepresented, and viewers did not appear to be able to distinguish between high- and low-quality videos. Health promotion strategies by professional medical organizations are needed to improve their presence and visibility on YouTube.Key words
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Video Recording
/
Videotape Recording
/
Dermatitis, Atopic
/
Social Media
Type of study:
Guideline
/
Observational_studies
/
Prevalence_studies
/
Risk_factors_studies
Limits:
Humans
Language:
En
Journal:
J Med Internet Res
Journal subject:
INFORMATICA MEDICA
Year:
2020
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Suiza