Source Of Medical Information Research Articles

Internet and social media use in dermatology patients: Search behavior and impact on patient-physician relationship.

The traditional patient-physician relationship is being changed by the patients' searches for medical information on the Internet and in social media (SM). Freely available medical information online bears enormous potential but also holds dangers. In this cross-sectional, questionnaire-based study, the patients' motivation, preferences and unmet needs when searching for medical information online and the impact on the patient-physician relationship were assessed using Spearman's correlation coefficients, χ2 -tests and paired t-tests. Among 460 participants, 82.4% had already used the Internet/SM to gain medical information, but in only 9.4% their dermatologists had raised this topic. Online search for medical information was associated with female gender (P = .048), a higher skin-related burden (P = .020), higher level of education (P = .072), higher income (P = .019), anxiety (P = .004), and adnexal skin diseases (P = .043). For 16.1% of patients, "the Internet/SM" was their most important source of medical information; 81.4% deemed the impact of their online searches on their patient-physician relationship as neutral, 16.0% as positive, 2.6% as negative. The patients' top three unmet needs were "Online consultations", "Professional content on YouTube" and "Chat opportunities". Online search for medical information is a very important topic for most dermatology patients but it may not be adequately addressed by dermatologists. Our results indicate that from the patients`perspective such online searches do not have a significant impact on patient-physician relationship.

Social Listening as a Rapid Approach to Collecting and Analyzing COVID-19 Symptoms and Disease Natural Histories Reported by Large Numbers of Individuals.

Given the severe and rapid impact of COVID-19, the pace of information sharing has been accelerated. However, traditional methods of disseminating and digesting medical information can be time-consuming and cumbersome. In a pilot study, the authors used social listening to quickly extract information from social media channels to explore what people with COVID-19 are talking about regarding symptoms and disease progression. The goal was to determine whether, by amplifying patient voices, new information could be identified that might have been missed through other sources. Two data sets from social media groups of people with or presumed to have COVID-19 were analyzed: a Facebook group poll, and conversation data from a Reddit group including detailed disease natural history-like posts. Content analysis and a customized analytics engine that incorporates machine learning and natural language processing were used to quickly identify symptoms mentioned. Key findings include more than 20 symptoms in the data sets that were not listed in online lists of symptoms from 4 respected medical information sources. The disease natural history-like posts revealed that people can experience symptoms for many weeks and that some symptoms change over time. This study demonstrates that social media can offer novel insights into patient experiences as a source of real-world data. This inductive research approach can quickly generate descriptive information that can be used to develop hypotheses and new research questions. Also, the method allows rapid assessments of large numbers of social media conversations that could be applied to monitor public health for emerging and rapidly spreading diseases such as COVID-19.

Adolescents’ awareness about prescription opioid misuse and preferences for educational interventions

ObjectivesThis study explored adolescents’ awareness about prescription opioid misuse, sources of medication information, and educational preferences. DesignAn online survey explored adolescents’ understanding and perceptions of prescription opioids and opioid misuse and safety, medication information sources, and educational preferences. Setting and ParticipantsEligible participants included students from 3 Wisconsin high schools who could speak and understand English. Participants were recruited through “backpack mail” and completed surveys online at school. Outcome MeasursSurvey responses were compared across demographic information of the study participants. Binary response items were compared across demographic strata by Fisher exact tests, and Likert responses were analyzed by Kruskal-Wallis tests. ResultsA total of 190 students (53% female, 53% white, 32% Hispanic) were surveyed. Most (83.5%) considered using someone else’s opioid medication to be misuse, 85.2% identified using opioids at a higher dose or frequency than prescribed as misuse, and 67.6% considered using an opioid prescription after its expiration date to be misuse. Approximately 90% of students perceived that opioid misuse causes some, quite a bit, or a great deal of harm to a person’s physical and mental health and school ability. Many students were able to correctly identify examples and consequences of misuse, however 24.7% believed that flushing opioids down the drain was dangerous. The most common source for finding information about opioids was Google or other search engines (67.6%), followed by talking with parents (56.7%), talking with a doctor or nurse (54.9%), and online videos (42.3%). ConclusionAdolescents have some opioid safety knowledge, but there is a clear opportunity to increase knowledge and understanding of risks. Adolescents could benefit from opioid safety education, particularly on safe storage and disposal, harms of misuse, and strategies for discouraging peer opioid misuse.

Assessment of quality and accuracy of YouTube videos on percutaneous transthoracic biopsy

Aim: YouTube is an essential source of medical information for patients, but may also be misleading, depending on the kind of content quality. The aim of this study is to evaluate the quality of YouTube videos on percutaneous transthoracic lung biopsy. Methods: A search on YouTube was performed with the terms ‘Lung Biopsy,’ ‘CT-Guided Lung Biopsy,’ ‘US-Guided Lung Biopsy,’ and ‘Percutaneous Transthoracic Biopsy.’ Relevant English videos were examined and scored by two reviewers. Video characteristics, uploaded sources, and content quality were assessed using different indices. Correlation analysis was conducted to investigate the possible correlation for global quality score. Results: Fifteen videos (47%) were uploaded by a healthcare professional, nine videos (28%) by a product company, six videos (19%) by an individual user, and 2 (6%) by an academic institution. The videos had a median (IQR) quality score of 2 (range 1-5), and a median (IQR) length of 235 (46-751) seconds. The quality of the videos varied, depending on the uploaded sources as well as whether they were uploaded by academic institutions, which had the highest quality. Some important components regarding the biopsy procedure, such as complications, were not evaluated in most videos. Conclusion: YouTube videos on percutaneous transthoracic lung biopsy (PTLB) had a low median content quality score, while some important points were grossly overlooked. Thus, YouTube videos may be a misleading source of patient information. Academic institutions and healthcare professionals should be creating accurate multimedia content for patients seeking informative medical information.

The Engaged Patient: The Relevance of Patient-Physician Communication for Twenty-First-Century Health.

The patient-doctor interaction has changed profoundly in the past decades. In reaction to paternalistic communication patterns, health policy makers have advocated for patient-centered care and shared decision-making. Although these models of medical communication remain still aspirational, patients have become more engaged in advocating for their own health in encounters with physicians. I argue that the engaged patient is a more accurate conceptualization of the changing role of the patient than patient consumerism, the empowered, or expert patient. I examine how the emergence of engaged patients influences the autonomy of health professionals, relates to the rise of the internet as an alternative source of medical information, centers the role of the patient-doctor interaction in public health epidemics, and contributes to health inequities.

Innovations to improve access to musculoskeletal care.

Innovation is a form of realising a new way of doing something, often ignoring traditional wisdom, in order to meet new challenges. Globally, particularly in emerging economies, the high burden of musculoskeletal conditions and their contribution to multimorbidity continue to rise, as does the gap for services to deliver essential care. There is a growing need to find solutions to this challenge and deliver person-centred and integrated care, wherein empowering patients with the capacity for self-management is critical. Whilst there is an abundance of information available online to support consumer education, the number of sources for credible medical information is diluted by uninformed anecdotal social media solutions. Even with the provision of high-quality information, behavioural change does not necessarily follow, and more robust educational approaches are required. In this chapter, we examine innovation, its management and the strategic directions required to improve musculoskeletal healthcare at macro (policy), meso (service delivery) and micro (clinical practice) levels. We discuss the critical role of consumer agency (patients and their families/carers) in driving innovation and the need to leverage this through empowerment by education. We provide a snapshot of real-world examples of innovative practices including capacity building in consumer and interprofessional musculoskeletal education and practice; recommendations to transform the access and delivery of integrated, person-centred care; and initiatives in musculoskeletal care and implementation of models of care, enabled by digital health solutions including telehealth, remote monitoring, artificial intelligence, blockchain technology and big data. We provide emerging evidence for how innovation can support systems' strengthening and build capacity to support improved access to 'right' musculoskeletal care, and explore some of the ways to best manage innovations. We conclude with recommended systematic steps to establish required leadership, collaboration, research, networking, dissemination, implementation and evaluation of future innovations in musculoskeletal health and care.

Evaluation of the completeness of information sources used to prepare the best possible medication histories at a tertiary teaching hospital in Jordan.

In this study we aimed to evaluate the completeness of three different medication information sources that are commonly used to collect and obtain the Best Possible Medication History (BPMH). This is an observational study which was held at Jordan University Hospital. After identifying eligible patients, the BPMH was obtained from three different sources separately. These sources include medical file, pharmacy database, and patients' interview. Information from all of these sources was compiled to create the BPMH. The BPMH was used as the standard against which every other information source was compared and given a "completeness score" according to a systematic scoring system. Among the 196 participating patients who were included in the study, 113 (57.7%) were recruited from internal medicine and 83 (42.3%) from surgical department. Patients' interview showed the highest median completeness score (71.4%) among the three used sources followed by pharmacy database (35.3%), and medical files (28.2%). The median completeness score for the compiled BPMH obtained by the pharmacist was 93.0%. The compiled BPMH completeness score was inversely proportional to the numbers of medications in the compiled BPMH (R = -.392, P value<.001). Moreover, patients with lower income showed better median BPMH completeness score compared with those with higher income (95.2% (IQR = 16.7%) vs 88.9% (IQR = 15.7%), respectively, P value = .042). The results show that pharmacist's interview with the patients scored the highest percentage of completeness compared with hospital pharmacy database and medical file and is, therefore, considered more comprehensive in obtaining the BPMH.

Use and non-use of a nationwide patient portal – a survey among pharmacy customers

Abstract Objectives A nationwide patient portal (My Kanta) for viewing electronic prescriptions and health data has been phased in since 2010 in Finland. This study aimed to study how commonly Finnish pharmacy customers use My Kanta, the factors related to My Kanta use, the main reasons for non-use and how non-users would like to monitor their medication and health information. Methods A survey was conducted among adult pharmacy customers purchasing prescription medicines for themselves or for their child &amp;lt;18 years. Questionnaires (N = 2866) were distributed from 18 pharmacies across Finland. Open-ended questions were analysed qualitatively. Quantitative analyses included frequencies, Chi-square tests, Fisher's exact tests, t-tests and logistic regression analysis. Key findings In total, 994 (34.7%) questionnaires were included. Most (82.5%) adult pharmacy customers used My Kanta. Use of the service was associated with use of the internet to search for health-related information (OR: 8.82, 95% CI: 4.65‒16.74), active internet use (OR: 7.30, 95 %: CI 3.54‒15.08), living in Northern (OR: 4.35, 95% CI: 1.75‒10.82) or Eastern (OR: 3.25, 95% CI: 1.41‒7.48) parts of Finland, and the increasing number of currently used regular prescription medicines (OR: 1.16, 95% CI: 1.01‒1.34). The main reasons for non-use were lack of need and tools. Non-users reported physician/health centres and pharmacies as their preferred sources of medication and health information. Conclusions Most Finnish pharmacy customers use the My Kanta nationwide patient portal. The strongest predictors for use are factors related to internet use. Some pharmacy customers do not use My Kanta despite having the necessary means. The main reason for non-use is a lack of need. Customers unable to use My Kanta want to monitor their medication and health information via healthcare professionals.

Seeking Support: Internet Habits of Parents during their NICU Infant’s Stay

Introduction: Research has shown that people are turning to the Internet as a source of medical information. Parents of infants in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), specifically, are using the Internet to research their infant’s health status. However, it is unknown what impact this may have on parental stress/confidence in their child’s health care professionals (HCPs) and whether HCPs are being informed of this usage of online medical information. Purpose: To explore the impact of Internet use on …

Cross sectional analysis of scoliosis-specific information on the internet: potential for patient confusion and misinformation.

Patients and their families are increasingly turning to the internet for medical information. Most of these patients believe the information to be accurate and reliable. However, the quality and accuracy of that information on the internet is variable and unregulated. Accurate and applicable information may align patients' expectations and improve satisfaction and overall outcomes. This study aimed to evaluate the quality and accuracy of scoliosis-related information available on the internet. Cross-sectional analysis. Independent searches were conducted on the three most commonly accessed search engines (Google, Yahoo and Bing) using the keyword "scoliosis". The top 30 sites from each search engine were reviewed. Each website was categorized as per its authorship and sourcing. Each site was then evaluated for accuracy, readability and with quality-assurance markers such as Health on the Net code (HONcode), DISCERN, Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA) systems. The accuracy of the website was assessed by two fellowship-trained spine specialists. Website accuracy was rated on a scale of 1-4 based on the level of agreement with the information presented. Websites with greater than 75% agreement were rated 4.Finally, the sites were evaluated with a validated website distraction index and assessed for mobile friendliness. 42 unique websites were analyzed. 31% of the sites were categorized as academic (13 academic, 9 healthcare system, 12 health news outlets and 8 unspecified) and had the highest rate of physician authorship (54%). Accuracy ranged from less than 25% to more than 75% were recorded with a mean accuracy of 3 signifying 50-75% agreement. Academic sites had the highest scoliosis specific accuracy score (P < 0.05). Overall, average readability was at a 12th grade reading level. More than 90% of the sites were mobile friendly. Approximately 71% of the websites did not have HONcode certification, although health news outlets had the highest rate of certification (67%). There was a significant effect of HONcode certification on DISCERN, JAMA, grade level and reading ease. On average, HONcode certified websites had lower grade level readability with greater reading ease and higher DISCERN and JAMA scores than un-certified sites (p < 0.05). On average, health news outlets had the highest DISCERN, JAMA, and reading ease scores and were written at the lowest grade reading level but had the highest level of distraction (p < 0.05). For the iGeneration and their care-givers, the internet remains the most popular source of health-related and medical information. Despite the wide number of sources available, the quality, accuracy, pertinence and intelligibility of the information remains highly variable. As clinicians, we should direct patients to verifiable sites with regulated information and, where possible, contribute high quality information to those sites.

715 Expectations of care among African-American Women with hair loss: A cross-sectional study

Despite being the fourth most common diagnosis among African-Americans presenting to the dermatologist, alopecia is often self-managed by African-American women (AAW) with only 23% seeking medical care. In this study, we aim to capture patient-reported healthcare utilization for alopecia, related treatments, and barriers to alopecia care among AAW with hair disorders. This cross-sectional study utilized REDCap to distribute a survey to AAW hair groups and profiles on social media in winter 2019. Respondents were required to be at least 18 years old, identify as an AAW with a hair disorder, and live in the United States. Of over 100 respondents, most patients sought medical information from online platforms. Confirming previous studies, less than half of participants sought medical care for alopecia, thus highlighting the poor utilization of healthcare resources by AAW. Subjects reported difficulty accessing a medical provider and the providers’ lack of understanding of Afro-textured hair as the most common barriers to medical treatment. These findings suggest that medical providers are rarely the source of medical information among this patient population. Online resources, particularly social media, play a significant role in influencing health-seeking behavior among AAW and should be utilized to educate this population on the symptomatology, diagnosis, and therapeutic options for hair loss disorders.

Physicians perspectives about medical sources of information: protocol for an overview of systematic reviews.

Despite the growing availability of evidence and sources of information, it is not clear what are the physicians preferences for filling gaps in their medical knowledge. To summarize the available evidence about physicians preferences and perceived barriers and facilitators about sources of information. We will undertake an overview of systematic reviews according to PRISMA guidelines. We will search Epistemonikos from inception until March 2019. We will also search PROSPERO, and we will perform a forward citation search in Scopus. Inclusion criteria will consider systematic reviews (qualitative, quantitative, or mixed methods) focusing on physicians preferences about sources of information, as well as perceived barriers and facilitators. Two authors will independently screen and select records for inclusion. We will appraise the quality of included systematic reviews using the Joanna Briggs Institute checklist, and the overlap of primary studies according to the corrected covered area formula. We will conduct a narrative synthesis of quantitative data and a thematic analysis of qualitative findings. We expect that our findings will contribute to improving the evidence-based general practice by identifying physicians perspectives about different sources of medical information.

YouTube as a Source of Medical and Epidemiological Information During COVID-19 Pandemic: A Cross-Sectional Study of Content Across Six Languages Around the Globe.

IntroductionThe current coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) outbreak has been declared to be a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO). It is evolving daily and has jeopardized life globally across social and economic fronts. One of the six key strategic objectives identified by the WHO to manage COVID-19 is to communicate critical information to all communities and prevent the spread of misinformation. We analyzed content on YouTube.com, a widely used web-based platform for medical and epidemiological information.MethodsYouTube search results using two keywords were analyzed each in six languages - English, Arabic, Bengali, Dutch, Hindi, and Nigerian Pidgin on April 8, 2020. Forty videos in each of the six languages (i.e., a total of 240 videos) were included for analysis in the study. Two reviewers conducted independent analyses for each language. The inter-observer agreement was evaluated with the kappa coefficient (κ). Modified DISCERN index and Medical Information and Content Index (MICI) scores were used for the reliability of content presented in the videos and information quality assessment, respectively. Analysis of variance, Kruskal-Wallis, Mann-Whitney test, and chi-square tests were done appropriately for data analysis. A p-value of less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant. All calculations were performed using SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 21.0 (IBM Corp, Armonk, NY).ResultsThe videos cumulatively attracted 364,080,193 views. Altogether, 52.5% of videos were Informative, 23.75% were News Updates, and 8.33% were Personal Experiences. Ten percent of videos were found to present medically misleading information. Independent Users contributed 75% of the misleading content. The overall Mean DISCERN score, an index of content reliability, was 2.62/5. The overall Mean MICI Score was 5.68/25. Videos had better scores in the Transmission component of the MICI scale and scored low on the Screening/Testing component.ConclusionThe reliability and quality of the content of most videos about COVID-19 and severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) were found to be unsatisfactory. Videos with misleading content were found across all six languages, and sometimes garnered a higher percentage of views than those from credible sources. The share of videos contributed by Government and Health Agencies was low. Medical institutions and health agencies should produce content on widely used platforms like YouTube for quality medical and epidemiological information dissemination.

Hidradenitis suppurativa through the lens of YouTube: A cross-sectional analysis

Hidradenitis suppurativa through the lens of YouTube: A cross-sectional analysis

Learning through Osmosis: A global Wikipedia editing course for medical students.

This article was migrated. The article was marked as recommended. Problem: Wikipedia is a ubiquitous source of information for patients, medical students and junior doctors alike. This is despite medical educators discouraging students from Wikipedia as a source of medical information. Intervention: To address this disconnect, Osmosis' Director of Open Learning Initiatives created a novel Wikipedia-editing course structured to leverage the global network of Osmosis-subscribing students. The course was entirely video-conference based and lasted 4 weeks in July 2019. Students typically worked on an article by themselves though one article was selected by two students. Towards the end of the course, each student peer-reviewed another student's edited article. Outcomes:Twelve medical students, from 11 different medical schools across 3 different continents, enrolled in the course and 11 articles were assigned. A total of 8,775 words and 119 higher quality references were added whilst 35 lower-quality references were removed. An exit survey showed students had increased confidence in their ability to contribute to Wikipedia. Students also enjoyed collaborating with a global diversity of peers. Lessons Learned: Numerous students wished that the course had a longer duration. A couple students recommended more groupwork to be incorporated into the course. The global nature of the course meant that time zones proved a challenge to scheduling. Conclusion:Decentralized courses can leverage the large user bases of medical education companies, such as Osmosis, to teach students analytical approaches to online resources as well as improve the quality of publicly available health information on Wikipedia.

YouTube as a source of medical information on the novel coronavirus 2019 disease (COVID-19) pandemic

ABSTRACT Media coverage on coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been extensive, yet large gaps remain in our understanding of the role of social media platforms during worldwide health crisis. The purpose of this study was to assess the most viewed YouTube videos on COVID-19 for medical content. We coded video characteristics, source, and medical content of the 113 most-widely viewed videos about COVID-19. Seventy-nine (69.9%) videos were classified as useful, and 10 (8.8%) videos were classified as misleading. Independent users were more likely to post misleading videos than useful videos (60.0% vs 21.5%, P = 0.009). News agencies were more likely to post useful videos than misleading videos (72.2% vs 40.0%, P = 0.039). Useful videos were more likely to present any information on prevalence or incidence (79.7% vs 20.0%, P < 0.001), as well as information on outcomes or prognosis (84.8% vs 30.0%, P < 0.001) compared to misleading videos. The World Health Organization contributed one useful video (1.3%), while no videos from the Center for Disease Control were included. Although YouTube generally is a useful source of medical information on the COVID-19 pandemic, increased efforts to disseminate accurate information from reputable sources is desired to help mitigate disease spread and decrease unnecessary panic in the general population.

Abstract 249: Online Health Information for Myocardial Infarction: Trusted Source or Fake News?

Objective: As the internet is a leading destination for health information for patients, there is a need for this information to be accurate and easy to understand. In this study, we assessed the quality and readability of online health related information for myocardial infarction (MI) directed towards patients. Methods: Websites were collected from 3 search engines (Google, Yahoo! and Bing) using the search term “Heart Attack” on a newly installed Mozilla Firefox browser. The first 30 websites from each engine were selected and those belonging to advertisements, new articles and physician oriented sites were excluded. The resulting sites were assessed for quality using the DISCERN instrument via 2 physician investigators knowledgeable in MI and blinded to each other’s results; following this, the results were discussed amidst the team to agree on a coalesced score for each website. Health On the Net (HONcode) was also used as an added measure to assess quality. Readability was assessed using the Flesch-Kincaid Readability Ease (FLRE) and the Flesch-Kincaid Grade level (FLGL) tool. Results: Overall, 24 websites were assessed. The average overall quality for DISCERN was 2.58 out of 5 with a median of 2.5 while the average total DISCERN score was 37.75 out of 80; the highest total quality among them being 61 out of 80. Only 29.17% (7 of 24) of the websites were HONcode certified. The average FLRE was 59.07 out of 100, while the average FLGL was 7.28 with the lowest grade level being 5.20. Conclusion: Patient health related information, on average, were of lower quality, while those higher quality websites were deemed less readable and needed a higher level of education to understand. The average reading grade level was that of the 7 th grade which is lower than what the average American reads at (8 th grade). The highest quality website based on total DISCERN score was from Wikipedia, however FLRE and FLGL tell us it was also harder to comprehend for the average American. Going forward there are important opportunities to improve the quality of online health related information for MI, in order to remain a trusted source of medical information for patients.

Fiction, Falsehoods, and Few Facts: Cross-Sectional Study on the Content-Related Quality of Atopic Eczema-Related Videos on YouTube.

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.

Colonoscopy videos on YouTube: Are they a good source of patient education?

Background and study aims Colonoscopy is an effective tool to prevent colorectal cancer. Social media has emerged as a source of medical information for patients.YouTube (a video sharing website) is the most popular video informative source. Therefore, we aimed to assess the educational quality of colonoscopy videos available on YouTube. Methods We performed a YouTube search using the keyword “colonoscopy” yielded 429 videos, of which 255 met the inclusion criteria. Colonoscopy Data Quality Score (C-DQS) was created to rate the quality of the videos (–10 to +40 points) based on a colonoscopy education video available on the Ameican Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ASGE) website. Each video was scored by six blinded reviewers independently using C-DQS. The Global Quality Score (GQS) was used for score validation. The intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) was used to assess the similarity of the scores among reviewers. Results Professional societies had the highest number of videos (44.3 %). Videos from professional societies (6.94) and media (6.87) had significantly higher mean C-DQS compared to those from alternative medicine providers (1.19), companies (1.16), and patients (2.60) ( P < 0.05). Mean C-DQS score of videos from healthcare providers (4.40) was not statistically different than other sources. There was a high degree of agreement among reviewers for the videos from all sources (ICC = 0.934; P < 0.001). Discussion YouTube videos are a poor source of information on colonoscopy. Professional societies and media are better sources of quality information for patient education on colonoscopy. The medical community may need to engage actively in enriching the quality of educational material available on YouTube.

Young adults' human papillomavirus–related knowledge: source of medical information matters

ObjectivesFew studies examine the influence that different sources of medical information has on human papillomavirus (HPV)–related knowledge. We examined the relationship between the primary source of medical information and knowledge about HPV in young adults aged 18–26 years. Study designThis study used cross-sectional data from the Health Information National Trends Survey. MethodsRespondents (n = 404) self-reported their knowledge about HPV-related diseases and vaccinations and their sources of medical information. Sources of medical information included electronic/print media, family/friends, or a healthcare provider. Bivariate and multivariate analyses were used to examine the association between the source of information and HPV knowledge. ResultsFifty-six percent of respondents used electronic or print media as their primary source of medical information. A greater proportion of Hispanic (40.0%) and black (36.0%) respondents received medical information from their family/friends than white respondents (20.0%). Respondents who received medical information from family/friends had 4.34 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 2.14, 8.79), 4.06 (95% CI: 2.05, 8.04), and 2.35 (95% CI: 1.10, 5.04) times higher odds than those who received information from healthcare providers of not knowing that HPV causes cervical cancer, knowing HPV is a sexually transmitted infection, and hearing about the HPV vaccine, respectively. ConclusionSource of medical information was significantly associated with knowledge of HPV. Receiving medical information from family/friends negatively influenced young adults' HPV knowledge. These findings may guide future interventions to target peer and familial influence on medical decisions.