YouTube as a Source of Patient Information for Meningiomas: A Content Quality and Audience Engagement Analysis

YouTube as a Source of Patient Information for Cervical Spine Fractures: A Content Quality and Audience Engagement Analysis

This study aimed to assess the quality of YouTube (YT) videos providing medical information on cervical spine fractures; secondly, a comparison of two timeframes has been conducted. Using Google Chrome with privacy settings to minimize personalization, two searches were conducted on 20 July 2021 and the second one on 10 April 2024 using various terms related to cervical spine injuries. Videos were evaluated using the DISCERN (Quality Criteria for Consumer Health Information), GQS (Global Quality Score), and JAMA scoring systems. In total, 91 videos were included. Mechanisms of injury were the most frequent video content (n = 66), and postoperative pain occurred the least (n = 6). The mean DISCERN score of 43.26 (std = 11.25), mean GQS of 2.67 (std = 0.74), and mean JAMA score was 2.2 (std = 0.68). Inclusion of treatment options had an odd ratio of 21.72 for a better-quality video. The largest number of videos was provided by physicians (n = 24). In DISCERN, risks of treatment were graded lowest = 1.9. Newer videos achieved higher scores in the DISCERN, GQS, and JAMA scoring systems reaching 52.5, 3, and 2.75, respectively. These scores suggest inadequate information provision in the videos, hindering patients' understanding of their condition. Due to insufficient information presented in current videos, patients are not fully informed.

Quality and Reliability Analysis of YouTube Videos Related to Neonatal Sepsis

Aim Neonatal sepsis is a clinical syndrome of illness accompanied by bacteremia that develops in the first month of life. The objective of this study was to evaluate the reliability and quality of YouTube^TM (www.youtube.com) videos pertaining neonatal sepsis. Methods The first 100 videos on YouTube^TM pertaining to neonatal sepsis were included in the analysis. Features like videos' image type, content and qualification of video creators were recorded. In addition, videos' length, upload date, time since upload, comment and like counts were also recorded. Quality of the videos was measured by the researchers using the Global Quality Scale (GQS) and reliability of the videos was evaluated through the DISCERN (Quality Criteria for Consumer Health Information on Treatment Choices) tool. Results The total length of the examined 100 videos was 35.84 hours and the total view count was 1,173,247. The most common video content was general information about neonatal sepsis, education and diagnosis. When qualification of the video creators was examined, the most common creators were physicians followed by other persons and health channels. The videos were divided into two groups according to the creators. Accordingly, 40 (40%) videos were uploaded by professionals and 60 by non-professionals. There was a statistically significant difference between physicians and non-physicians in terms of the mean DISCERN and GQS scores (both, p<0.01). Conclusion Both DISCERN and GQS scores were statistically significantly higher in the videos provided by physicians. Physicians should be encouraged to upload accurate informative videos about neonatal sepsis and direct parents to accurate sources of treatment.

Social Media as a Source of Knowledge about Gene Therapy for Spinal Muscular Atrophy

Social media is one of the most common sources of medical information. We aimed to evaluate the information contained on websites, including social media and descriptions of fundraisers, in terms of the reliability of knowledge about SMA and gene therapy with onasemnogen abeparvovec. We used a set of available online links found using the Newspointtool. Initially, 1525 texts were included in the study, and after applying the inclusion and exclusion criteria, 112 texts were qualified for analysis using the DISCERN scale and the set of questions prepared by the authors. We observed that most of the texts had poor (48.65%) and medium (27.03%) reliability in the final reliability assessment. All the texts selected for the study were related to gene therapy, although few contained key information about it. In addition, the authors of the entries used various words and phrases that influenced the readers' perceptions of the text. Of the analyzed sources, 68.8% had an emotional component. Social media is a poor source of information about gene therapy for SMA in Poland. The analyzed texts do not provide a full and complete description of the SMA problem. However, it is important to remember that the Internet is a changing source of information and will hopefully contain more relevant entries in the future.