Youtube Videos for Patient Education on How to Use Nasal Sprays Associated with Insufficient Reliability

Abstract

Nasal sprays are extremely important for delivery of intranasal medications for allergic rhinitis, however their effectiveness is dependent on proper technique. We hypothesized that there is a paucity of YouTube videos that effectively educate viewers on how to use nasal sprays. The website YouTube.com was queried for the phrase “how to use nasal spray”. The resulting videos were assessed whether they discussed the following 9 steps of nasal spray use: blowing the nose, removing cap, shaking device, priming, properly holding device, tilting head forward, spraying away from septum, gently inhaling or sniffing, exhaling through mouth. Videos were excluded if they lacked English words or text, contained repeated segments of previous videos, addressed non-allergic conditions, were non-educational advertisements, or did not address how to use nasal sprays. Search phrase returned 7480 videos. The 60 videos on the first three pages of results were analyzed since prior studies have shown that patients are most likely to view these videos. Thirty-four videos were excluded based on criteria above. The remaining 26 videos averaged 133 seconds duration with 10,862 views. Only 2 videos (7.7%) discussed all 9 steps of nasal spray use. On average, most steps were discussed by videos from non-clinical healthcare groups (7.7 steps), followed by clinics and hospitals (3.5 steps), individual healthcare professionals (3.2 steps), and non-healthcare persons (2.5 steps). Only 7.7% of videos discussed all steps of correct nasal spray use. Videos from non-clinical healthcare groups were most comprehensive. Creation of patient education videos authored by allergists should be encouraged.