Research Report
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World J Gastroenterol. Apr 14, 2014; 20(14): 4066-4070
Published online Apr 14, 2014. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v20.i14.4066
YouTube as a source of patient information on gallstone disease
Jun Suh Lee, Ho Seok Seo, Tae Ho Hong
Jun Suh Lee, Ho Seok Seo, Department of Surgery, Armed Forces Capital Hospital, Seongnam 463-040, South Korea
Tae Ho Hong, Department of Surgery, Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul 137-701, South Korea
Author contributions: Lee JS and Hong TH designed the study; Lee JS and Seo HS performed the research; Seo HS and Hong TH analysed the data; Lee JS, Seo HS and Hong TH wrote the paper.
Correspondence to: Tae Ho Hong, MD, Department of Surgery, Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of South Korea, Banpo-dong, Seocho-gu, Seoul 137-701, South Korea. gshth@catholic.ac.kr
Telephone: +82-2-22582876 Fax: +82-2-5952992
Received: October 28, 2013
Revised: December 11, 2013
Accepted: January 3, 2014
Published online: April 14, 2014
Abstract

AIM: To investigate the quality of YouTube videos on gallstone disease and to assess viewer response according to quality.

METHODS: A YouTube search was performed on September 18, 2013, using the keywords ‘‘gallbladder disease’’, ‘‘gallstone disease’’, and ‘‘gallstone treatment’’. Three researchers assessed the source, length, number of views, number of likes, and days since upload. The upload source was categorised as physician or hospital (PH), medical website or TV channel, commercial website (CW), or civilian. A usefulness score was devised to assess video quality and to categorise the videos into ‘‘very useful’’, ‘‘useful’’, ‘‘slightly useful’’, or ‘‘not useful’’. Videos with misleading content were categorised as ‘‘misleading’’.

RESULTS: One hundred and thirty-one videos were analysed. Seventy-four videos (56.5%) were misleading, 36 (27.5%) were slightly useful, 15 (11.5%) were useful, three (2.3%) were very useful, and three (2.3%) were not useful. The number of mean likes (1.3 ± 1.5 vs 17.2 ± 38.0, P = 0.007) and number of views (756.3 ± 701.0 vs 8910.7 ± 17094.7, P = 0.001) were both significantly lower in the very useful group compared with the misleading group. All three very useful videos were PH videos. Among the 74 misleading videos, 64 (86.5%) were uploaded by a CW. There was no correlation between usefulness and the number of views, the number of likes, or the length. The “gallstone flush” was the method advocated most frequently by misleading videos (25.7%).

CONCLUSION: More than half of the YouTube videos on gallstone disease are misleading. Credible videos uploaded by medical professionals and filtering by the staff of YouTube appear to be necessary.

Keywords: YouTube, Gallstone disease, Gallstone, Gallbladder, Cholecystitis

Core tip: Many people now use the Internet for medical information. There have been many studies evaluating the available information on YouTube, which is one of the most popular sources of medical information. In this paper, we present the first report of an evaluation of YouTube videos on gallstone disease. More than half of the videos were misleading, and there was no correlation between video quality and the number of views or number of likes. Credible videos uploaded by medical professionals, and a filtering process appear to be necessary.