YouTube as a Source of Information on Hymenoplasty

Abstract

Aim: The aim of this study was to evaluate the quality, validity and reliability of YouTube videos regarding hymenoplasty. Methods: On 01/03/2021, the terms "Hymenoplasty", "Hymen Repair", "Hymenoplasty Surgery" and "Virginal Membrane" were entered separately in the YouTube search bar, and the videos were listed by selecting "relevance" from the filtering options. After excluding non-English videos, videos shorter than 60 seconds and longer than 20 minutes, entertainment videos, news and repeat videos, the most relevant and most watched 100 videos were included in the study. Results: While 50% of these videos were uploaded by physicians and 40% by private clinics, 64% were contained information about surgical technique and 28% general information. While the mean DISCERN score of the videos uploaded by physicians was 2.96 ± 0.83, it was 2.84 ± 1.27 for those who were not uploaded by physicians. While the mean GQS score of the videos uploaded by doctors was 2.96 ± 0.75, it was 2.74 ± 1.24 for the videos that were not uploaded by physicians. According to the scores given by the researchers on both DISCERN and GQS scales, 38 videos were found to be of poor quality and misleading, 31 videos were of medium quality, 23 videos were of good quality, and 8 videos were of excellent quality. Conclusion: While general information videos uploaded by physicians and private clinics contain useful and educational information, we found that surgical technique videos provide incomplete and misleading information. We think that all videos with health content should only be uploaded by specialist doctors and health channels and these videos should be subjected to peer review.