University of Health Sciences, Ankara City Hospital, Department of Urology, Ankara, Turkey.
University of Health Sciences, Bursa Yuksek Ihtisas Training and Research, Hospital, Department of Urology, Bursa, Turkey.
J Pediatr Urol. 2022 Aug;18(4):515.e1-515.e6. doi: 10.1016/j.jpurol.2022.04.021. Epub 2022 May 13.
There are thousands of patient information videos published on YouTube, the most watched video sharing platform; however, most of these videos contain incomplete or incorrect information. Interestingly, some videos with incomplete or incorrect information have a higher view rate. This study aimed to evaluate the quality of patient information videos on 'undescended testis' published on YouTube.
A search was conducted on YouTube using the keywords 'undescended testis' and 'cryptorchidism', and a total of 373 videos were found. Among these, 122 patient information videos presented in the English language were examined. Four different scoring systems were used to evaluate the quality of the videos: Patient Education Materials Assessment Tool for Audiovisual Materials, Global Quality Score, Journal of American Medical Association score, and modified DISCERN scoring system. Whether the videos contained accurate and sufficient information was evaluated using a scoring system developed based on the patient information booklet prepared by the European Association of Urology (EAU) on undescended testis.
The median duration (sec), number of views and number of likes of the videos were 269 (11-2484), 589 (6-1.563561) and 7 (0-4.200), respectively. According to the EAU-patient information scoring (EAU-PIS), while 32 (26.2%) of the total 122 videos contained a good level of informativeness (score: 8-10), the view rate of these videos was only 4.1% among all videos. When the top 10 most watched videos were evaluated, their mean EAU-PIS was 5.9 ± 2.81, and these videos contained a moderate level of informativeness. On the positive side, 90% of all the videos recommended surgery as a treatment option.
Although YouTube is a widely used video-sharing platform, it is also a website where people or institutions can easily upload non-standardized videos due to the absence of regulations. Therefore, although it is an easily accessible source of information, it has many gaps in terms of reliability. As shown in our study, the rate of videos with accurate information was very low. It would be beneficial for viewers to be aware of this and accept YouTube as a source where they can have a general idea about a subject in which they are interested rather than using it as a reference information site. In future, YouTube can become a reference source in the medical field, especially with the standardization of medical videos through the collaboration of various organizations.
YouTube 是世界上最大的视频分享平台，拥有成千上万条关于患者信息的视频，但其中大多数的视频内容并不完整或存在错误信息。有趣的是，一些信息不完整或错误的视频反而拥有更高的浏览量。本研究旨在评估 YouTube 上发布的有关“隐睾”的患者信息视频的质量。
在 YouTube 上使用“隐睾”和“睾丸未降”等关键词进行搜索，共找到 373 个视频，其中有 122 个为英语患者信息视频。我们使用四个不同的评分系统评估视频质量：视听材料患者教育材料评估工具、全球质量评分、美国医学会评分和改良 DISCERN 评分系统。还根据欧洲泌尿外科学会（EAU）编制的隐睾患者信息手册开发了一个评分系统，评估视频内容是否准确且充分。
视频的中位数时长（秒）、浏览量和点赞数分别为 269（11-2484）、589（6-1.563561）和 7（0-4.200）。根据 EAU 患者信息评分（EAU-PIS），122 个视频中总共有 32 个（26.2%）信息充分（评分：8-10），但这些视频的浏览量仅占所有视频的 4.1%。当评估最受欢迎的前 10 个视频时，它们的平均 EAU-PIS 为 5.9±2.81，且这些视频的信息充分程度为中等。积极的一面是，所有视频中有 90%都推荐手术作为治疗选择。
尽管 YouTube 是一个广泛使用的视频分享平台，但由于缺乏监管，人们或机构可以很容易地在该网站上上传非标准化的视频，因此，尽管它是一个容易获取信息的来源，但它在可靠性方面存在很多不足。如我们的研究所示，准确信息的视频比率非常低。观众意识到这一点并将 YouTube 视为他们感兴趣的主题的一般信息来源，而不是将其作为参考信息网站，这对他们是有益的。未来，通过各种组织的合作，YouTube 可以成为医疗领域的参考资源。
