Evaluating YouTube as a Resource for Postherpetic Neuralgia Patient Education

Abstract

Introduction: Postherpetic neuralgia (PHN) is one of the common complications of herpes virus and is the most common neuropathic pain syndrome after an infectious disease. YouTube is a widely used source for information, but the quality of YouTube videos in terms of medical content is questionable. Therefore, our aim was to evaluate the PHN-related quality of YouTube videos. Materials and Methods: This study was carried out by evaluating YouTube videos up to April 2023. A total of 65 videos were evaluated. The number of views and duration of the videos, the number of likes and views, the number of comments, the age of the videos and the source of the videos were recorded. We evaluated all videos for overall educational quality and creator bias. Content creators were categorized as physicians, health-related websites, and patients, and we compared overall DISCERN scores and bias scores between creator type and search term. Results: The average view count of the videos was 119224.62. The mean DISCERN and DISCERN Bias Scores were 2.01 and 2.14 respectively. Most of the videos were uploaded by the physicians. The DISCERN and DISCERN Bias scores were significantly higher in the videos uploaded by physicians (p<0.001, p:0.002 respectively). Conclusions: Educational value of YouTube videos about PHN uploaded by different sources is poor or moderate. Although physician-created videos have higher quality and less bias, health-professionals should warn their patients to be cautious when referring to social media platforms about their disease.

Keywords

• Postherpetic Neuralgia
• YouTube
• video

Postherpetik Nevraljili Hastaların Eğitimi İçin YouTube'un Kalitesini Değerlendirmek

Öz

Giriş: Postherpetik nevralji (PHN), herpes zoster virüsünün en sık görülen uzun dönem komplikasyonu olup enfeksiyöz bir hastalıktan sonra en sık görülen nöropatik ağrı sendromudur. YouTube, sağlık profesyonelleri ve hastaların çeşitli prosedürler hakkında bilgi edinmeleri için yaygın olarak kullanılan bir kaynaktır ancak tıbbi içerik de dahil olmak üzere YouTube videolarının kalitesi tartışmalıdır. Bu nedenle YouTube videolarının PHN ile ilgili eğitsel değerini araştırmayı hedefledik. Gereç ve Yöntemler: Bu kesitsel çalışma, Nisan 2023'e kadar olan YouTube videoları değerlendirilerek yapıldı. Arama geçmişi sıfırlandıktan sonra 65 video tarandı. Videoların süresi, izlenme sayısı, beğeni sayısı, yorum sayısı, izlenme oranı, yükleme tarihinden itibaren geçen süre ve videoların kaynağı kaydedildi. Tüm videoların genel eğitim kalitesi ve içerik oluşturucu biası kaydedildi. İçerik oluşturucular doktorlar, sağlıkla ilgili web siteleri ve hastalar olarak kategorilere ayrıldı ve içerik oluşturucu türü ile arama terimi arasındaki ortalama DISCERN puanlarını ve bias skorları karşılaştırıldı. Sonuç: Videoların ortalama izlenme sayısı 119224,62 olarak bulundu. Ortalama DISCERN ve DISCERN Bias Skorları sırasıyla 2.01 ve 2.14 idi. Videoların çoğu hekimler tarafından yüklenmişti. Hekimler tarafından yüklenen videolarda DISCERN ve DISCERN Bias skorları anlamlı olarak yüksekti (sırasıyla p<0.001, p:0.002). Tartışma: Farklı kaynaklar tarafından yüklenen PHN ile ilgili YouTube videolarının eğitici değeri zayıf veya orta düzeydedir. Hekimle tarafından oluşturulan videolar daha yüksek kaliteye ve daha az biasa sahip olsa da, sağlık profesyonelleri hastalarını hastalıkları hakkında sosyal medya platformlarını refere ederken dikkatli olmalıdırlar.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Postherpetik Nevralji
• YouTube
• video

Kaynakça

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