YouTube provides irrelevant information for the diagnosis and treatment of hip arthritis

Abstract

Purpose YouTube is increasingly becoming a key source for people to satisfy the need for additional information concerning their medical condition. This study analyses the completeness of accurate information found on YouTube pertaining to hip arthritis. Methods The present study analyzed 133 YouTube videos using the search terms: hip arthritis, hip arthritis symptoms, hip arthritis diagnosis, hip arthritis treatment and hip replacement. Two quality assessment checklists with a scale of 0 to 12 points were developed to evaluate available video content for the diagnosis and the treatment of hip arthritis. Videos were grouped into poor quality (grade 0-3), moderate quality (grade 4-7) and excellent quality (grade 8-12), respectively. Three independent observers assessed all videos using the new grading system and independently scored all videos. Discrepancies regarding the categories were clarified by consensus discussion. For intra-observer reliabilities, grading was performed at two occasions separated by four weeks.Results Eighty-four percent (n = 112) had a poor diagnostic information quality, 14% (n = 19) a moderate quality and only 2% (n = 2) an excellent quality, respectively. In 86% (n = 114), videos provided poor treatment information quality. Eleven percent (n = 15) of videos had a moderate quality and only 3% (n = 4) an excellent quality, respectively. Conclusions The present study demonstrates that YouTube is a poor source for accurate information pertaining to the diagnosis and treatment of hip arthritis. These finding are of high relevance for clinicians as videos are going to become the primary source of information for patients. Therefore, high quality educational videos are needed to further guide patients on the way from the diagnosis of hip arthritis to its proper treatment.

YouTube as a Source of Information About the Posterior Cruciate Ligament: A Content-Quality and Reliability Analysis

“…4,5 The accuracy of patient education videos on YouTube has been investigated in the context of other orthopedic conditions and treatments, including hip and knee arthritis, femoroacetabular impingement, articular cartilage defects, and others. [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13] Results suggest that these videos have, overall, poor educational content. (The quality of online educational content for other common orthopedic injuries is largely unknown.…”

“…An estimated 84% of adults used the internet on a regular basis in 2015, and 60% of adults reported having accessed health-related information online in the previous month. [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11] Video-sharing sites such as YouTube have become popular resources for health information. More than 1.9 billion users visit The authors report the following potential conflicts of interest or sources of funding: R.F.L.…”

Sufficiency of YouTube Videos as a Source of Information in Kidney Transplantation

“…Koller et al carried out a study examining the YouTube videos related with hip arthritis in which it was determined that the content and uploader of the videos were educational-physician (40.6%) and educational-non-physician (37.6%). It was determined that the quality of the videos in the educational-physician group was greater in comparison with those of the other videos (18). It was determined in our study that the quality of the videos on kidney transplantation was at a moderate level and that the individual videos of physicians had a lower quality.…”

The assessment of online health videos for surgery in Crohn's disease

“…There is concern regarding the diversity of information being shared in patient videos, as videos uploaded to YouTube TM are not peer-reviewed [34,35]. Previous work has shown patient material in the form of narratives to be inaccurate [17,18,22,24,25,36]. The accuracy of material uploaded by IBD sufferers may be variable due to the relapsing-remitting effect of the disease, or an extreme positive or negative experience of healthcare [23].…”

“…YouTube TM has more than 2 billion views a day and more than a billion users (a third of Internet users) [19,20]. Previous work has shown that health information videos are being uploaded to YouTube TM to inform patients about their condition and its management [17,18,[21][22][23][24][25]. In addition to being a source of healthcare information, YouTube TM provides a comments section for social networking and patient interaction.…”