YouTube as an Information Source for Lumbar Disc Herniations: A Systematic Review

-OBJECTIVE: The Internet is a source of health informa-tion for patients. Quality of information available to pa-tients is varied and uncontrolled. Physicians should be familiar with the overall quality of the information. This review provides an evaluation of YouTube's current patient accessible health information on the topic of lumbar disc herniation (LDH).-METHODS: YouTube was queried using 3 different search strings: (1) disc herniation, (2) lumbar disc her- -iation, or (3) lower back disc herniation. Video dupli-cates, non-English, or those that contained no audio or were not relevant to LDH were excluded. The first 50 videos per search string were evaluated. Two reviewers independently assessed videos. Parameters included duration, upload date, number of views, number of likes, views per day, and likes per day. A scoring system was used to grade the videos for their performance on diagnosis and treatment of LDH.-RESULTS: The first 50 videos produced a total number of hits of 50,500, 29,100, and 22,100, respectively. Strong agreement, assessed using intraclass correlation coeffi-cient (ICC), was demonstrated between readers for both diagnostic scores (ICC 0.921, 95% CI 0.866-0.953) and treatment scores (ICC 0.916, 95% CI 0.855-0.951). Educa-tional Physician videos had significantly greater diagnostic and treatment scores compared to non-physician videos (9.54 vs. 7.05, P = 0.048, and 6.53 vs. 5.3, P = 0.004).-CONCLUSIONS: YouTube videos pertaining to LDH were found to have low overall quality. Physicians should be cognizant about information sources readily available topatients as they may influence patient expectations and preconceptions.

Automated summary

This study evaluated the quality of patient-accessible health information on lumbar disc herniation (LDH) on YouTube. The study found that videos on YouTube about LDH had low overall quality, and physicians should be aware of the quality of information available to patients.