Educational Quality of YouTube Videos for Patients Undergoing Elective Procedures

Julien Hohenleitner; Kendyl Barron; Taylor Bostonian; Lyudmyla Demyan; Stephanie Bonne

doi:10.1016/j.jss.2023.07.009

Educational Quality of YouTube Videos for Patients Undergoing Elective Procedures

J Surg Res. 2023 Dec:292:206-213. doi: 10.1016/j.jss.2023.07.009. Epub 2023 Aug 26.

Authors

Julien Hohenleitner¹, Kendyl Barron², Taylor Bostonian³, Lyudmyla Demyan⁴, Stephanie Bonne⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of General Surgery, Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell, Manhasset, New York. Electronic address: julienhohen@gmail.com.
² Department of General Surgery, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut.
³ Department of General Surgery, Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, Newark, New Jersey.
⁴ Department of General Surgery, Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell, Manhasset, New York.
⁵ Department of Surgery, Hackensack Meridian Health, Edison, New Jersey.

PMID: 37639947
DOI: 10.1016/j.jss.2023.07.009

Abstract

Introduction: YouTube has become a main resource used by patients for self-education on medicine. It is important for surgeons to understand the quality and reliability of videos that patients are likely to view about elective procedures.

Methods: Videos were categorized by view count and content creators. The top 20 videos for each term, sorted by relevance, were evaluated using DISCERN criteria, a question set externally validated to assess the quality of information regarding health treatment choices. DISCERN score (DS) closer to 5 indicate higher quality information and 1 indicates the opposite. Total scores were given: 15-26 (very poor), 27-38 (poor), 39-50 (fair), 51-62 (very good), and 63-75 (excellent). Search terms included "Wound Care", "Skin Grafting", "Tracheostomy", and "percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy tube placement".

Results: In total, 80 unique videos were evaluated with a total view of 8,848,796. The mean overall DS was 2.15 and a mean bias DS was 2.46. The median DISCERN total score for each key term was Tracheostomy: 35 (poor), Skin Grafting 26 (very poor), percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy: 32 (poor), and Wound Care: 40 (fair).

Conclusions: YouTube videos surrounding elective procedures should be viewed cautiously in patient education despite wide availability. The videos in this study show high levels of bias and low DS. Healthcare providers should be aware of poor-quality consumer health information often disseminated in online media such as YouTube.

Keywords: DISCERN criteria; Patient education; YouTube.