Female genital cosmetic surgery (FGCS): Evaluation of YouTube videos

Abstract

ObjectivesThe purpose of our study is to evaluate the information available on YouTube regarding FGCS procedures in terms of content, accuracy, reliability and quality. MethodsVideos were listed on YouTube on 01.10.2020 by searching the terms "plastic surgery for female genital", "vaginoplasty", "labiaplasty" and selecting their relevance from the filtering options. Among these listed videos, the 50 most watched videos were listed and recorded excluding commercials, repeating videos, those shorter than 60s and non-English ones. The videos were scored by two researchers using DISCERN and JAMA scales. The DISCERN scale varies between 0−75 points and according to the scores obtained from the scale, videos are classified as 63–75: (excellent); as 51–62: (good); as 39–50: (moderate) as 28- 38: poor and as <28 very poor. JAMA scale is a scale that evaluates the accuracy, usefulness and reliability of video sources between 0−4. Insufficient data on 1 point video source obtained from the scale, refers to. 2–3 (partially sufficient data) and 4: (completely sufficient data). ResultsThe evaluation on DISCERN scores given to the videos revealed that the average DISCERN score of the first researcher was 45.65±13.271 and the average of the second researcher’s DISCERN score was 44.65±14.235. The average of JAMA scores was 2.67±0.826 for the first researcher and 2.49±0.845 for the second researcher. Accordingly, a statistically significant linear relationship was found between DISCERN (r=0.812) scores and JAMA (r=0.622) scores by the researchers. ConclusionWe found that YouTube has the potential to provide patients with easy access to a large amount of information on FGCS, although almost all of the videos we included in the study were uploaded by health professionals, the overall quality of the content on the subject was moderate. We strongly suggest that any videos on health should be uploaded by experts and these videos should definitely be reviewed by a referee.