Healthcare information on YouTube: Pregnancy and COVID-19.

OBJECTIVE

We aimed to analyze Turkish language videos on YouTube about Coronavirus and pregnancy.

METHODS

YouTube was searched for the following keywords: "Coronavirus, gebelik," "Coronavirus, Hamilelik," "COVID-19, gebelik" and "COVID-19, hamilelik". All ranking data for each video was recorded, video sources and target audiences were analyzed. Videos were designated as "informative, "misleading" "personal experience" and "news update." The usefulness of the videos were analyzed by DISCERN score and the quality of the content was calculated by MICI score.

RESULTS

Seventy-six videos had a total of 1.494.860 views, with 40.849 likes and 575 dislikes. The source of information in informative videos was physicians (73%), and news agencies (20%), and the majority of these targeted patients. The DISCERN score of videos was 2.9 ± 1, 1.6 ± 0.9, and 1.9 ± 0.9 respectively for respectively for the informative group, personal experience group, and news update group. The mean MICI score for informative videos was low and calculated as 5.3 ± 2.8.

CONCLUSION

YouTube videos are easily accessible sources of COVID-19 information for pregnant women. The present study demonstrated that videos about pregnancy and COVID-19 have high view rates, but are generally low in quality and trustworthiness.