Is youTube effective on covid-19 vaccination during pregnancy

Abstract

Aim: YouTube® is one of the most frequently used social media platforms worldwide. The quality of the videos is of utmost significance in terms of the accurate information for pregnant women and in the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of life-threatening diseases such as COVID-19. This study aimed to evaluate the content and quality of YouTube videos that pregnant women make use of as a source of information for covid-19 vaccines. Methods: A search was made on YouTube with the keywords and phrases such as "pregnancy and covid vaccination", "is the covid vaccine risky in pregnancy?". A total of 54 videos in English were analyzed. Video sources were divided into 5 groups as hospitals, professional medical chambers, pregnant women, physicians and news channels. The quality of the contents was evaluated with DISCERN, GQS and the pregnancy covid vaccine index (CVI) we have developed for this purpose.Results: Of these videos, we have detected that 20 (37%) were shared by hospitals, 5 (9%) were shared by physicians, 5 (9%) were shared by pregnant women, 22 (41%) were shared by news programs or news program hosts, and 2 (4%) were shared by medical chambers. The mean DISCERN score was 33.2±17. The pregnant group was significantly different from the other groups in terms of GQS (p=0.048). There was no significant difference between the groups in terms of covid vaccination index during pregnancy (p= 0.501).Conclusion: This study revealed that There is an urgent need to regulate the content of videos pursuant to medical guideline.