Abstract
BackgroundIn 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.ObjectiveAs 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.MethodsThe 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.ResultsAmong 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.ConclusionsOur 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.
Highlights
Atopic dermatitis (AD), known as atopic eczema, is the most common chronic inflammatory skin disease during childhood [1] and is characterized by recurrent itchy eczematous lesions [2]
The objectives of this study were as follows: (1) identify the upload sources, common topics, and YouTube categories of the 100 most viewed videos; (2) investigate the content-related quality of YouTube videos as a source of information on atopic dermatitis (AD) by applying two different score instruments; (3) correlate viewers’ ratings with our quality assessment findings; and (4) point out strategies for interventions that increase the quality of AD videos and medical content generally uploaded to YouTube and other social media platforms
The most frequent topic was topical treatment (55.0%, 55/100), followed by education (38.0%, 38/100; eg, pathogenesis, risk factors, and instructions for wet-wrapping techniques), food, nutrition, and diet (28.0%, 28/100), complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) (26.0%, 26/100), bathing/wet wrapping (26.0%, 26/100), systemic treatment (15.0%, 15/100), unclear topic (15.0%, 15/100), other topics (13.0%, 13/100), irritants (12.0%, 12/100; clothing, sweat, heat, and allergens), therapeutical advertisement (10.0%, 10/100), UV treatment (5.0%, 5/100), and stress prevention (4.0%, 4/100) (Multimedia Appendix 5B)
Summary
Atopic dermatitis (AD), known as atopic eczema, is the most common chronic inflammatory skin disease during childhood [1] and is characterized by recurrent itchy eczematous lesions [2]. YouTube is such a video-based social media platform that allows users to communicate and share their disease burden and individual experience through videos, which can receive comments [6] It is currently the second most accessed website worldwide [7], attracting approximately one-third of all internet users [8]. The objectives of this study were as follows: (1) identify the upload sources, common topics, and YouTube categories of the 100 most viewed videos; (2) investigate the content-related quality of YouTube videos as a source of information on AD by applying two different score instruments; (3) correlate viewers’ ratings with our quality assessment findings; and (4) point out strategies for interventions that increase the quality of AD videos and medical content generally uploaded to YouTube and other social media platforms.
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