Zheluk Andrey, Maddock Jess
School of Biomedical Sciences, Charles Sturt University, Bathurst, Australia.
University of Sydney, Menzies Centre for Health Policy, Sydney, Australia.
JMIR Form Res. 2020 Nov 20;4(11):e23366. doi: 10.2196/23366.
Access to guideline-consistent effective care for acute low back pain (ALBP) is generally regarded as limited. Researchers have recognized the potential of YouTube as a clinical and patient education resource that may improve access to appropriate care. However, the heterogeneity of evaluation approaches and variable quality of health information have generally limited the potential of YouTube as a self-management intervention.
This study aims to increase the understanding of ALBP content available on YouTube in 2020 and to establish the plausibility of using a simple checklist to facilitate the discovery of YouTube content consistent with current guidelines. We examined the following 4 research questions: how was the data set defined, what are the metadata characteristics of the videos in the data set, what is the information quality of ALBP YouTube videos, and what are the characteristics of the YouTube data set based on an ALBP self-management checklist?
This was an exploratory, qualitative infodemiology study. We identified videos in our data set through YouTube search based on popular ALBP-relevant search terms identified through Google Trends for YouTube. We accessed YouTube metadata using the YouTube data tools developed by the University of Amsterdam. We used a modified Brief DISCERN checklist to examine the information quality. We developed a checklist based on the 2018 Lancet Low Back Pain guidelines to examine self-management content.
We analyzed a data set of 202 YouTube videos authored by chiropractors, physicians, physiotherapists, and instructors of yoga and other disciplines. We identified clear differences in the ALBP videos in our data set based on the authors' disciplines. We found that the videos authored by each discipline strongly featured a specific intervention domain, that is, education, treatment, or exercise. We also found that videos authored by physicians were consistently coded with the highest ALBP self-management content scores than all other disciplines.
The results returned by YouTube in response to a search for back pain-related content were highly variable. We suggest that a simple checklist may facilitate the discovery of guideline-concordant ALBP self-management content on YouTube. Further research may identify the clinical contexts in which the use of an ALBP checklist with YouTube is feasible.
对于急性下腰痛（ALBP），获得符合指南的有效治疗通常被认为是有限的。研究人员已经认识到YouTube作为一种临床和患者教育资源的潜力，它可能会改善获得适当治疗的机会。然而，评估方法的异质性和健康信息质量的参差不齐，总体上限制了YouTube作为一种自我管理干预手段的潜力。
本研究旨在加深对2020年YouTube上可用的ALBP内容的理解，并确定使用一个简单的检查表来促进发现与当前指南一致的YouTube内容的合理性。我们研究了以下4个研究问题：数据集是如何定义的，数据集中视频的元数据特征是什么，ALBP YouTube视频的信息质量如何，以及基于ALBP自我管理检查表的YouTube数据集的特征是什么？
这是一项探索性的定性信息流行病学研究。我们通过YouTube搜索，根据通过谷歌趋势为YouTube确定的与ALBP相关的热门搜索词，在数据集中识别视频。我们使用阿姆斯特丹大学开发的YouTube数据工具访问YouTube元数据。我们使用经过修改的简明DISCERN检查表来检查信息质量。我们根据《柳叶刀》2018年下腰痛指南制定了一个检查表，以检查自我管理内容。
我们分析了一个由脊椎按摩师、医生、物理治疗师以及瑜伽和其他学科的教练创作的202个YouTube视频的数据集。我们根据作者的学科，在数据集中的ALBP视频中发现了明显差异。我们发现每个学科创作的视频都强烈突出一个特定的干预领域，即教育、治疗或锻炼。我们还发现，与所有其他学科相比，医生创作的视频在ALBP自我管理内容得分方面始终被编码为最高。
YouTube针对背痛相关内容搜索返回的结果差异很大。我们建议，一个简单的检查表可能有助于在YouTube上发现与指南一致的ALBP自我管理内容。进一步的研究可能会确定在哪些临床环境中，将ALBP检查表与YouTube结合使用是可行的。
