Background: Videos uploaded to YouTube do not go through a review process. The educational aspect of these videos may be insufficient for patellofemoral pain syndrome (PFP).
Objective: To examine the reliability and educational quality of PFP videos on YouTube.
Methods: A standard search was performed in the YouTube database using the following terms: patellofemoral pain syndrome/anterior knee pain syndrome/anterior knee pain/patellofemoral pain. For each search term, the top 50 videos based on "relevance" assignment of YouTube's algorithm were included in the examination. The remaining 96 videos after exclusion were included in the study. The educational quality and reliability of videos was analyzed using DISCERN, JAMA (The criteria of Journal of the American Medical Association), GQS (Global Quality Score) and PFPSS (Patellofemoral Pain Specific Score).
Results: According to PFPSS, 81.2% of the videos were evaluated as low and very low quality. According to the DISCERN classification, 74.9% of the videos were evaluated as poor and very poor. According to GQS, 59.4% of the videos had scores of 2 or less, which were considered poor quality. According to JAMA, 41.7% of the videos scored 2 and below.
Conclusions: The information content of YouTube videos is inadequate. Video design should be created to be understandable by patients and to attract their attention while making these videos.
Keywords: DISCERN; Patellofemoral pain syndrome; YouTube; patient education; quality of information.