YouTube as a source of information on gout: a quality analysis

Abstract

YouTube is a popular video-sharing platform commonly visited by patients and healthcare professionals for medical information. Gout is the most frequent cause of inflammatory arthritis in adults. However, the accuracy and quality of gout-related information on YouTube are not fully known. Thus, the aim of this study was to assess the reliability and quality of YouTube videos pertaining to gout. A YouTube search was conducted using the keywords “gout”, “gout arthritis”, “gout treatment”, and “gout diet”. Of the 240 videos screened, 114 that met the inclusion criteria were included in the study. The number of days since upload, number of views, likes, dislikes, comments and duration of the videos were recorded. A Modified DISCERN tool and the Global Quality Scale (GQS) were used to evaluate the reliability and quality of the videos. Of the 114 analyzed videos, 87.72% were deemed as useful while 12.28% contained misleading information with higher viewership. The most common topic was “gout diet”. The majority of the videos demonstrated high quality (57.89%), followed by intermediate quality (28.95%) while the percentage of low-quality videos was 13.16%. Videos posted by academic institutions/professional organizations and physicians had higher modified DISCERN and GQS scores indicating higher reliability and quality. This study demonstrated that the majority of YouTube videos on gout provide useful information. However, physicians should be aware of the limited nature of YouTube and correct any misinformation during face-to-face meetings. YouTube should consider avoiding misleading videos using validity scales such as modified DISCERN and GQS.

YouTube as a source of information about COVID-19 for children: Content quality, reliability, and audience participation analysis

“…In this study, it was found that the mean DISCERN score of ministry/ academic/hospital/physician channel videos was higher than the mean score of entertainment/individual channel videos. Similar to this study, Onder and Zengin (2021) reported that YouTube videos uploaded by academic institutions/professional organizations have a higher reliability score. Although there was no significant difference between the groups in terms of DISCERN score in the study of Demir et al (2021), Culha et al (2021) evaluated YouTube videos about pelvic floor muscle exercises, it was seen that quality and reliable information was shared by health professionals (nurses, physicians, physiotherapists) regardless of the branch, and it was reported that the "DISCERN" scores of the videos uploaded by health professionals were high.…”

“…It was found that DISCERN, GQS, and CCC mean scores of videos grouped as informative were significantly higher than videos grouped as misleading. Onder and Zengin (2021) analyzed YouTube videos about gout in their study and, similar to this study, reported that the DISCERN and GQS scores of videos grouped as useful were significantly higher. Yuksel and Cakmak (2020) analyzed YouTube videos about COVID-19 and pregnancy, and similar to this study, most of the videos were categorized as informative.…”

“…Recently, patients are turning to more and more online information resources to make informed decisions. YouTube is a free, easy and fast-access video sharing platform that has the potential to be a source of information on health (Onder & Zengin, 2021). However, the scientific accuracy, reliability, and quality of the medical information contained in the videos vary.…”

“…In the studies on the analysis of videos about COVID-19 on YouTube the ways of transmission of disease, prevention measures (Basch et al, 2020;D'Souza et al, 2020;Ramírez et al, 2020;Szmuda et al, 2020aSzmuda et al, , 2020b) videos published in different languages such as Korean, Spanish (Hernández-García & Giménez-Júlvez, 2020; Moon & Lee, 2020) were discussed. Except for these studies, during the COVID-19 pandemic process, there were studies that analyze videos for areas such as dentistry (Ozdede & Peker, 2020;Ozden-Yuce et al, 2021), pregnancy (Yuksel & Cakmak, 2020), andrology (Demir et al, 2021), and chronic diseases such as rheumatic diseases (Kocyigit et al, 2020) and gout (Onder & Zengin, 2021). In addition to these studies, there are a limited number of studies focusing on the analysis of YouTube videos watched by children (Neumann & Herodotou, 2020b;Turkoglu et al, 2020).…”

“…Yuksel and Cakmak (2020) reported that most of the videos in Turkish analyzed on COVID-19 and pregnancy on YouTube were uploaded by physicians, similar to this research. Demir et al (2021) reported that videos related to COVID-19 and andrology were mostly created by healthcare professionals, and Onder and Zengin (2021) reported that videos about gout were mostly uploaded by physicians. Similar to previous studies, it was determined in this study that the health videos uploaded were not reliable and of high quality, except for reliable authorities.…”