Abstract
The purpose of the present study was to assess the quality of information available on YouTube videos pertaining to thyroid cancer. A search of YouTube (http://www.youtube.com) was performed on February 12, 2018, using the search terms “thyroid cancer” and “thyroid cancer treatment.” The first 50 videos that appeared on each search were reviewed and 52 videos were included in the analysis. Videos were independently analyzed by two authors for video characteristics including publishing source of upload, continent of origin, presence of animation, and numbers of views, likes, and dislikes. The quality of information provided was assessed using the DISCERN and JAMA benchmark scores, while video power index was also calculated. The median (min-max) DISCERN score was 19.5 (4–71) for reviewer 1 and 20.0 (4–72) for reviewer 2. The median (min-max) JAMA benchmark score was 2.0 (1–4) for both reviewers. JAMA scores were positively correlated with video power index in both reviewer 1 (r = 0.310, p = 0.025) and reviewer 2 (r = 0.356, p = 0.010) assessment. JAMA and DISCERN scores were positively correlated with duration of videos in both reviewer 1 (r = 0.454, p = 0.001 and r = 0.533, p < 0.001, respectively) and reviewer 2 (r = 0.541, p < 0.001 and r = 0.519, p < 0.001, respectively) assessment. In conclusion, our findings revealed poor quality of information provided by YouTube videos pertaining to thyroid cancer based on DISCERN and JAWA scores. Videos with longer duration and higher video power index seem to be associated with higher quality scores, whereas no impact of using animation was shown on quality scores as well as no association between video duration and video power index.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Powell J, Inglis N, Ronnie J, Large S (2011) The characteristics and motivations of online health information seekers: cross-sectional survey and qualitative interview study. J Med Internet Res 13(1):e20
Fox S (2011) The social life of health information http://www.pewinternet.org/2011/05/12/the-social-life-of-health-information. Accessed 20 Apr 2018
Fernandez-Llatas C, Traver V, Borras-Morell JE, Martinez-Millana A, Karlsen R (2017) Are health videos from hospitals, health organizations, and active users available to health consumers? An analysis of diabetes health video ranking in YouTube. Comput Math Methods Med 2017:8194940
Singh SK, Liu S, Capasso R, Kern RC, Gouveia CJ (2018) YouTube as a source of information for obstructive sleep apnea. Am J Otolaryngol 39(4):378–382
Drozd B, Couvillon E, Suarez A (2018) Medical YouTube videos and methods of evaluation: literature review. JMIR Med Educ 4(1):e3
Cassidy JT, Fitzgerald E, Cassidy ES, Cleary M, Byrne DP, Devitt BM, Baker JF (2018) YouTube provides poor information regarding anterior cruciate ligament injury and reconstruction. Knee Surg Sports Traumatol Arthrosc 26(3):840–845
Cassidy JT, Baker JF (2016) Orthopaedic patient information on the World Wide Web: an essential review. J Bone Joint Surg Am 98:325–338
Madathil KC, Rivera-Rodriguez AJ, Greenstein JS, Gramopadhye AK (2015) Healthcare information on YouTube: a systematic review. Health Informatics J 21(3):173–194
Meldrum S, Savarimuthu BT, Licorish S, Tahir A, Bosu M, Jayakaran P (2017) Is knee pain information on YouTube videos perceived to be helpful? An analysis of user comments and implications for dissemination on social media. Digit Health 3:2055207617698908
Tahara M (2018) Management of recurrent or metastatic thyroid cancer. ESMO Open 3(Suppl 1):e000359
Hundahl SA, Fleming ID, Fremgen AM, Menck HR (1998) A National Cancer Data Base report on 53,856 cases of thyroid carcinoma treated in the US, 1985–1995. Cancer 83(12):2638–2648
Deen MH, Burke KM, Janitz A, Campbell J (2016) Cancers of the thyroid: overview and statistics in the United States and Oklahoma. J Okla State Med Assoc 109(7–8):333–338
Smittenaar CR, Petersen KA, Stewart K, Moitt N (2016) Cancer incidence and mortality projections in the UK until 2035. Br J Cancer 115(9):1147–1155
Thyroid cancer facts and figures. National Cancer Institute Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program Web Site. http://seer.cancer.gov/statfacts/html/thyro.html. Accessed 25 Nov 2018
Davies L, Welch HG (2006) Increasing incidence of thyroid cancer in the United States, 1973–2002. JAMA 295(18):2164–2167
Enewold ZK, Ron E, Marrogi AJ, Stojadinovic A, Peoples GE, Devesa SS (2009) Rising thyroid cancer incidence in the United States by demographic and tumor characteristics, 1980–2005. Cancer Epidemiol Biomark Prev 18(3):784–791
Hesse BW, Nelson DE, Kreps GL, Croyle RT, Arora NK, Rimer BK, Viswanath K (2005) Trust and sources of health information: the impact of the internet and its implications for health care providers: findings from the first health information National Trends Survey. Arch Intern Med 165(22):2618–2624
The National Cancer Intelligence Network (2012) Thyroid cancer – trends by sex, age and histological type NCIN Data Briefing. www.ncin.org.uk/databriefings. Accessed 25 Nov 2018
ReFaey K, Tripathi S, Yoon JW, Justice J, Kerezoudis P, Parney IF, Bendok BR, Chaichana KL, Quiñones-Hinojosa A (2018) The reliability of YouTube videos in patients education for glioblastoma treatment. J Clin Neurosci. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jocn.2018.07.001
Brna PM, Dooley JM, Esser MJ, Perry MS, Gordon KE (2013) Are YouTube seizure videos misleading? Neurologists do not always agree. Epilepsy Behav 29(2):305–307
MacLeod MG, Hoppe DJ, Simunovic N, Bhandari M, Philippon MJ, Ayeni OR (2015) YouTube as an information source for femoroacetabular impingement: a systematic review of video content. Arthroscopy 31:136–142
Steinberg PL, Wason S, Stern JM, Deters L, Kowal B, Seigne J (2010) YouTube as source of prostate cancer information. Urology 75(3):619–622
Leong AY, Sanghera R, Jhajj J, Desai N, Jammu BS, Makowsky MJ (2018) Is YouTube useful as a source of health information for adults with type 2 diabetes? A South Asian perspective. Can J Diabetes 42(4):395–403
Charnock D, Shepperd S, Needham G, Gann R (1999) DISCERN: an instrument for judging the quality of written consumer health information on treatment choices. J Epidemiol Community Health 53(2):105–111
Silberg WM, Lundberg GD, Musacchio RA (1997) Assessing, controlling, and assuring the quality of medical information on the Internet: Caveant lector et viewor–let the reader and viewer beware. JAMA 277(15):1244–1245
Corcelles R, Daigle CR, Talamas HR, Brethauer SA, Schauer PR (2015) Assessment of the quality of internet information on sleeve gastrectomy. Surg Obes Relat Dis 11(3):539–544
Singh AG, Singh S, Singh PP (2012) YouTube for information on rheumatoid arthritis–a wakeup call? J Rheumatol 39(5):899–903
Desai T, Shariff A, Dhingra V, Minhas D, Eure M, Kats M (2013) Is content really king? An objective analysis of the public’s response to medical videos on YouTube. PLoS One 8(12):e82469
Murugiah K, Vallakati A, Rajput K, Sood A, Challa NR (2011) YouTube as a source of information on cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Resuscitation 82(3):332–334
Keelan J, Pavri-Garcia V, Tomlinson G, Wilson K (2007) YouTube as a source of information on immunization: a content analysis. J Am Med Assoc 298(21):2482–2484
Syed-Abdul S, Fernandez-Luque L, Jian WS, Li YC, Crain S, Hsu MH, Wang YC, Khandregzen D, Chuluunbaatar E, Nguyen PA, Liou DM (2013) Misleading health-related information promoted through video-based social media: anorexia on YouTube. J Med Internet Res 15(2):e30
Briones R, Nan X, Madden K, Waks L (2012) When vaccines go viral: an analysis of HPV vaccine coverage on YouTube. Health Commun 27(5):478–485
Rapp AK, Healy MG, Charlton ME, Keith JN, Rosenbaum ME, Kapadia MR (2016) YouTube is the Most frequently used educational video source for surgical preparation. J Surg Educ 73(6):1072–1076
Fischer J, Geurts J, Valderrabano V, Hugle T (2013) Educational quality of YouTube videos on knee arthrocentesis. J Clin Rheumatol 19:373–376
Bezner SK, Hodgman EI, Diesen DL, Clayton JT, Minkes RK, Langer JC, Chen LE (2014) Pediatric surgery on YouTube™: is the truth out there? J Pediatr Surg 49(4):586–589
Rossler B, Lahner D, Schebesta K, Chiari A, Plochl W (2012) Medical information on the internet: quality assessment of lumbar puncture and neuroaxial block techniques on YouTube. Clin Neurol Neurosurg 114:655–658
Larouche M, Geoffrion R, Lazare D, Clancy A, Lee T, Koenig NA, Cundiff GW, Stothers L (2016) Mid-urethral slings on YouTube: quality information on the internet? Int Urogynecol J 27(6):903–908
Rupert DJ, Moultrie RR, Read JG, Amoozegar JB, Bornkessel AS, O'Donoghue AC, Sullivan HW (2014) Perceived healthcare provider reactions to patient and caregiver use of online health communities. Patient Educ Couns 96(3):320–326
Woo BKP (2018) What can we learn from diabetes-related YouTube videos? Can J Diabetes 42(4):342
Lam NH, Tsiang JT, Woo BK (2017) Exploring the role of YouTube in disseminating psychoeducation. Acad Psychiatry 41(6):819–822
Woo BK (2017) Dementia health promotion for Chinese Americans. Cureus 9(6):e1411
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of Interest
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Ethical Approval
For this type of study formal consent is not required.
Additional information
Publisher’s Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
About this article
Cite this article
Aydin, M.A., Akyol, H. Quality of Information Available on YouTube Videos Pertaining to Thyroid Cancer. J Canc Educ 35, 599–605 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13187-019-01502-9
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13187-019-01502-9