Are Social Media Platforms Appropriate Sources of Information for Patients Regarding the Topic of Facial Trauma?

Abstract

Internet technologies have made a wide variety of information available to the public. Social media platforms (SMPs) can also be used as a source of information for patients seeking health care information. However, the quality of health information on SMPs is not clear and standardized. To evaluate the content, reliability, and quality levels of videos reporting on facial trauma on a SMP (YouTube [Google LLC, San Bruno, California]) regarding patients' information. This was a cross-sectional study, and the sample is composed of videos found on a SMP based on searching the keyword "facial trauma." English-language videos with acceptable audiovisual quality and content related to facial trauma were included in the study. The descriptive features such as number of views, number of likes, number of comments, video duration, date of uploading, and the demographic features such as source and uploader were recorded. The primary outcome variable was content level. Secondary outcome variables were reliability and quality levels measured by DISCERN and Global Quality Scale. The name and uniform resource locator of the videos were recorded as additional data. The Mann-Whitney U test was used to compare low-content and high-content videos with a significance level of P<.05. The Kappa test was used to assess the inter-rater reliability. The sample was composed of 50 videos that met study's inclusion. The mean total content score for the videos was 2.87 (range: 0 to 7), with 64% of all videos (n=32) classified as low-content. The reliability and quality levels of videos classified as high-content were significantly superior (P<.001). In addition, the video duration was significantly higher in the high-content videos (P=.045). High-content videos were uploaded by health care professionals with a ratio of 39%, and the sources of these videos were predominantly oral and maxillofacial surgeons; however, low-content videos were mostly uploaded by clinics (75%), with the sources of these videos predominantly laypersons. Given the generally low content, reliability, and quality of online videos regarding facial trauma, clinicians should be cautious in recommending or referring patients to SMPs.