Is YouTube useful as a source of information for approaches to reducing blood pressure and hypertension treatment?

Abstract

Hypertension is an important public health problem due to its high prevalence and common complications. The aim of this study was to evaluate the quality of videos on YouTube related to reducing blood pressure and hypertension treatment. Using the six search terms "hypertension treatment", "cure hypertension", "hypertension medication", "control high blood pressure", "lower high blood pressure", and "reduce high blood pressure", a total of 360 relevant videos on YouTube were evaluated. Some parameters, i.e., the length of the video, number of days on YouTube, number of view counts, and number of likes, dislikes, and comments, were noted for all videos. The Global Quality Scale (GQS) was used to evaluate the quality of the videos. We categorized the video content as useful or misleading using the evidence-based medical literature. After exclusions, 104 videos were evaluated by two independent reviewers. Out of all the videos, 51% were useful, and 49% were misleading. Videos mentioned lifestyle changes (LCs) more (65 videos, 62.5%), and only 39.4% (41 videos) of all the videos contained information about pharmacological treatment (PT). Videos about alternative treatment (AT) had high numbers of views, and videos about PT had low numbers of views, and this difference was statistically significant. Videos that did not include PT but did include LCs and AT had more likes, similar to the number of views. YouTube, which is an important source of information, can guide individuals to in reducing high blood pressure with nonpharmacological and pharmacological methods. Uploaders; doctors (31.7%), herbalists/nutritionists (18.3%), independent users (10.6%), chiropractors (6.7%), yoga teachers (4.8%), and others (27.9%). (B) Country of origin; United States of America (58.7%), India (16.3%), Australia (5.8%), United Kingdom (3.8%), others (4.8%), and unknown (10.6%). (C) Usefulness rate by content (%). PT, pharmacological treatment; LC, lifestyle change; AT, alternative treatment.

Keywords: Access to information; Highblood pressure; Hypertension; Internet; Therapeutics.