YouTube as a source of patient information for varicose vein treatment options.
Journal of Vascular Surgery: Venous and Lymphatic Disorders, Volume 5, Issue 2, Pages 238-243
The authors, lead by MY Trevor have investigated the usefulness of YouTube in obtatining information about varicose vein treatment. They look at the "quality of content and potential sources of bias".
Two "independent assessors" looked at vides containing information about varicose vein treatment and each video was rated for "information quality and stance". The latter was rated as "for, neutral, against or unclear" recommendation for treatment. in the YouTube segment.
In this excerpt from their results, the authors showed that a total of "284 videos were extracted, of which 228 met eligibility criteria and were analyzed. The largest group of videos (47.3%) received a quality rating of fair".
The authors conclude in this study that the "videos available on YouTube are neither sufficiently comprehensive nor adequately balanced to be recommended as patient education material regarding interventional treatment options for varicose veins".
The article can be purchased by going to the following link:
http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S2213333X16303092
Dr Karamanoukian's note: The authors have done a very interesting study that should be of interest to individuals in social media as well as physicians who are uploading information on YouTube for patient viewing. The authors break down data between "private companes" versus "other" with information from 'private companies" showing "poor quality ratings".