Department of Education and School Management, Faculty of Teacher Training, University of Valencia, 46022 Valencia, Spain.
Basic Psychology Department, Faculty of Psychology, University of Valencia, 46010 Valencia, Spain.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021 Feb 28;18(5):2350. doi: 10.3390/ijerph18052350.
YouTube is one of the most well-known and widely accessed websites worldwide, thus having a powerful pedagogical potential. Nonetheless, the quality and the veracity of some YouTube videos are questionable. Doubts regarding the trustworthiness of factual content is a controversial factor that needs to be taken into account, especially when addressing public health issues. For this reason, the main objective of this work is to analyze the content of the most viewed videos in Spanish on YouTube related to autism spectrum disorder (ASD). To carry out this research, the terms "autism AND education", "autism AND intervention", and "autism AND cure" were used (in Spanish). The analysis of these searches results indicated that videos included in the "cure" category are shorter, and less valued by internet users, obtaining the lowest ratings on the "Patient Education Materials Assessment Tool" for audiovisual materials (PEMAT-A/V), in addition to present therapies that are in fact more harmful than videos in other categories. In general, videos containing recommendations for therapies that are harmful are the ones that have received most views, along with the videos that include alternative non-harmful therapies. Practical implications of these findings and recommendations for further research are discussed.
YouTube 是全球最知名、访问量最大的网站之一，因此具有强大的教学潜力。然而，一些 YouTube 视频的质量和真实性值得怀疑。对于事实内容的可信度存在疑问是一个有争议的因素，特别是在涉及公共卫生问题时。出于这个原因，这项工作的主要目的是分析西班牙语中关于自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）的 YouTube 上最受欢迎的视频的内容。为了进行这项研究，使用了“自闭症 AND 教育”、“自闭症 AND 干预”和“自闭症 AND 治愈”这三个关键词（均为西班牙语）。对这些搜索结果的分析表明，“治愈”类别的视频更短，互联网用户对其评价较低，在视听材料的“患者教育材料评估工具”（PEMAT-A/V）中获得的评分最低，此外，这些疗法实际上比其他类别中的视频更有害。总的来说，包含有害疗法建议的视频的浏览量最高，其次是包含替代无害疗法的视频。讨论了这些发现的实际意义和对进一步研究的建议。
