YouTube Videos to Create a “Virtual Hospital Experience” for Hip and Knee Replacement Patients to Decrease Preoperative Anxiety: A Randomized Trial

Abstract

BackgroundWith declining reimbursement to health care systems, face-to-face time between patients and providers to optimize preoperative education and counseling may be challenging.ObjectiveBecause high patient anxiety prior to surgery has been linked to more severe and persistent pain after joint replacement surgery, the Orthopedic Surgery Department at Mayo Clinic in Florida created a playlist of 16 YouTube videos aimed at creating a virtual hospital experience for primary total hip and knee joint replacement patients. A randomized trial was then performed to evaluate the potential impact of viewing this playlist on preoperative anxiety.MethodsEach patient completed a Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) score assessment at the time of the routine preoperative clinic visit and then randomized based on his/her gender, type of surgery, and initial GAD score to either the control group of standard education (education at face-to-face clinical visits as well as printed educational materials) or the treatment group (standard education plus access to the YouTube playlist). On the morning of the patient’s surgery, the same survey was repeated. Of the 65 patients who consented to participate in the study, 53 completed the study (82%) with 28 of 29 (97% completed) in the control group and 25 of 36 (69% completed) in the treatment group.ResultsOverall, the results showed a trend toward less anxiety in patients who viewed the YouTube videos; this was exhibited by a reduction in the median GAD score by 1 point. This trend is more clearly present in patients with high preoperative anxiety (predominantly women), as seen in the reduction of the median GAD score by 6 points in the treatment group.ConclusionsAlthough our experience is limited, our results indicate that a series of tailored videos may decrease patient anxiety preoperatively. We recommend further exploration of both this concept and the use of social media tools in preoperative patient education.Trial RegistrationClinicaltrials.gov NCT02546180; http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02546180 (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/6f6y0Dw7d).

Social media in colorectal surgery

“…A group at the Mayo Clinic created a set of videos for patients with the goal of counselling and optimizing preoperative education prior to hip and knee replacement surgery. Their randomized controlled trial revealed that patients' anxiety levels were less if the videos had been viewed [50]. This study demonstrates the impressive seemingly endless power and reach of social media [50].…”

“…Their randomized controlled trial revealed that patients' anxiety levels were less if the videos had been viewed [50]. This study demonstrates the impressive seemingly endless power and reach of social media [50]. For someone new to social media, it can be quite overwhelming such that searching for 'ASCRS surgery' in the toolbar results in over 26 000 results including various society videos, podium presentation from past meetings or any media tagged with the ASCRS name, making this a valuable encyclopaedia of videos.…”

A systematic review of information format and timing before scheduled adult surgery for peri‐operative anxiety

“…We selected 34 trials with 3742 participants, of which 29 were randomised, controlled , 4 were quasi‐randomised and 1 was cluster‐randomised (Figs. and ; Table ).…”

“…Patients with an inadequate understanding of the language used to transmit information were not studied in these trials. The effects of different information formats were tested by 30 trials and different timings by 5 trials .…”

YouTube: are parent-uploaded videos of their unwell children a useful source of medical information for other parents?

“…Healthcare professionals have begun to use YouTube as a tool for patient education in certain areas,2 but the volume of professionally created content is far outweighed by content that is created by YouTube users who are not healthcare professionals. As videos are often not peer reviewed, there is a wide variation in the quality and reliability of videos available.…”