Discussion
There has been a strong increase in access to health-related information
on YouTube due to free access and ease of use [15]. There is no
system that checks the quality of the videos or the accuracy of the
information in the videos during uploading. Although social media,
especially YouTube, is very beneficial for both patients and healthcare
professionals, who use it to educate themselves, these platforms carry
risks such as the availability of incorrect, uncontrolled and incomplete
information [16]; therefore, in order to improve the content of
YouTube videos related to health, video sources should be checked and
the videos should be evaluated for the accuracy of the information they
contain [17, 18]. In the present study, we wanted to examine the
content and quality of the content of videos about vertigo on YouTube.
There are many studies in the literature that examine videos on YouTube
about various diseases and treatments [8-10, 18]. To our knowledge,
this was the first study that objectively evaluates the quality and
reliability of information about “vertigo” on YouTube.
When we examined the videos about vertigo, we observed that most of the
videos consisted of videos containing general information about vertigo
and videos showing how to do the maneuvers. Kerber et al. analyzed
YouTube videos on the Epley maneuver and reported that 64% of the
videos were accurately demonstrated Epley maneuver [19]. Our view on
this is that if a physician directs the patient to YouTube videos after
telling the patient what maneuver to do after making the diagnosis, it
will be very helpful. However, it should be kept in mind that if
patients turn to these videos before they are fully diagnosed, their
symptoms may worsen.
When we examined the videos according to their content, we observed that
the majority of the videos (66.7%) had low content although most of the
videos were uploaded by healthcare professionals (36.2%). Correlation
of the content scoring with GQS and modified DISCERN shows us that the
content scoring we have made is consistent. Most of the previous
studies, except for a small part [20, 21], showed that
health-related videos on YouTube had low content, in line with our study
[8, 22, 23].
While previous studies revealed a positive correlation between the
duration of the videos and the information content, no such correlation
was observed in the present study [8, 12, 24]. Paksoy et al. found a
positive correlation between the total content score and video duration
but did not find a correlation between the total content score and the
number of comments, likes, dislikes, interaction index and viewing rate
[17]. In our own study, we did not find a correlation between the
total content score and the number of comments, likes and dislikes,
interaction index and viewing rate, and unlike the study of Paksoy et
al., we did not find any correlation between total content score and
video duration.
When high content and low content videos were compared, no significant
difference was found in terms of video length, number of views, number
of comments, likes and dislikes, interaction index, power index and
viewing rate. This shows us that low content videos are watched as much
as high content videos. Previous studies present various results about
this and there is no correlation between publications. For example, the
results of the study conducted by Paksoy et al. are similar to ours
[17]. In the study of Üstün et al. [8], the results were similar
to ours, but unlike our study, they found a significant difference
between high and low content videos in terms of video duration.
The videos uploaded by the laypersons are all testimonial videos in
which they convey their personal experiences. When all testimonial
videos were compared with educational videos in terms of video
characteristics, we found that there was no significant difference
between the 2 groups. In other words, vertigo searchers are curious
about the experiences of the people as well as the educational
information.
The study has several limitations. We used Google Trends to find the
most commonly used keyword in this regard, but when searching on YouTube
with a different keyword, different results may be obtained. The results
are likely to vary constantly, as the data on YouTube changes with every
passing moment. There is a shortage of videos available in other
languages, as only videos in English are reviewed. There was no
validated assessment tool to examine the content of the videos. For this
reason, a content score scheme was created jointly by two authors of the
present study, taking inspiration from previous studies, and
examinations were made accordingly.