YouTube as an Information Source for Pediatric Adenotonsillectomy and Ear Tube Surgery

Abstract

Objectives: 1) Assess the overall quality of information on adenotonsillectomy (TA) and ear tube surgery (BMTT) presented on YouTube from the perspective of a parent searching for information for their child’s surgery. Methods: YouTube was systematically searched on select dates with a formal search strategy to identify videos pertaining to pediatric TA and BMTT. Comprehensive search terms were developed to include terms most likely entered by parents/patients seeking information on these procedures. Only videos with at least an average of 5 (BMTT) or 10 views (TA) per day were included. Each video was viewed and scored by three independent viewers. Scores were given for category, goal, video/audio quality, accuracy, comprehensiveness, procedure-specific content, and total quality. Descriptive statistics and comparison of means analysis (t-test) were performed. Results: Fifty-five videos were scored for TA and 47 for BMTT. The most common category was educational (65.3%), followed by testimonial (28.4%) and news program (9.8%). Testimonials were more common for TA than BMTT (41.8% vs. 12.8%, P = 0.001). Testimonials had a significantly lower total quality score than other types of videos (8.7 vs. 9.6, P = 0.035), and news programs had a significantly higher score (10.7 vs. 9.2, P = 0.04). Only six videos (5.9%) received high scores in both video/audio quality and accuracy/comprehensiveness of content. There was no association between the total quality score and views, likes, dislikes, and likes/dislikes ratio. There was an association between likes and video quality (Spearman’s rho = 0.262, P = 0.008). Conclusions: Parents/patients searching YouTube for information on these procedures will generally encounter low quality information with testimonials being common but of particularly poor quality.