Quality and Reliability Analysis of Videos About Thulium Laser Enucleation of the Prostate on YouTube.

OBJECTIVE

To assess the reliability and quality analyses of thulium laser enucleation of the prostate (ThuLEP) videos on YouTube, as a source of public information.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

In this study, a YouTube search with the keyword "ThuLEP" was performed on November 15, 2022 and 142 videos were listed according to relevance. Video features and source of upload were recorded. The quality of videos was evaluated by using both the Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA) score and the Global Quality Score (GQS); the reliability of videos was evaluated by using 5-point modified DISCERN tool, respectively. The correlation analysis was performed by using Spearman test between video features and these three scores.

RESULTS

Seventy-seven videos were analyzed after exclusion and the most common source of upload were urologists (54.5%) and the videos containing only ThuLEP surgery (74%) were the majority of the videos. The median JAMA score, 5-point modified DISCERN score, and GQS were 2, 1, and 1, respectively. There were no statistical differences in these three scores according to the source of the upload. All three scores were analyzed separately by language and no significant statistical difference was found. There was a positive correlation between the video power index and as well as JAMA, GQS, and m.DISCERN scores.

CONCLUSION

Despite abundant videos on ThuLEP on YouTube, most of these videos are not targeted to public and information provided may not be as useful for patients. Information presented in these videos may be inaccurate and not reliable.