Quality of Videos on Pediatric Chemotherapy Higher When Sourced by Health Institutions

Videos about chemotherapy for pediatric patients uploaded to YouTube by independent users get more views than those uploaded by official health institutions, but the health institutions’ videos tend to be higher quality. These findings were published in Pediatric Blood Cancer.

YouTube has become increasingly popular as a platform for disseminating health information, but the reliability of this information has not been studied. Therefore, a team of researchers based in Turkey set out to analyze YouTube videos on chemotherapy for pediatric cancer for quality and reliability. 

They conducted a systematic evaluation of the top 100 videos based on popularity. They used the Video Power Index to calculate popularity, and 2 pediatric oncology experts reviewed the videos. 

The videos were assessed for reliability and quality using the modified DISCERN and Global Quality Scale (GQS), respectively. The GQS uses a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (poor) to 5 (excellent). 

Of the 100 videos studied, 54% were uploaded by health institutions and 46% by independent users. Chemotherapy application for children was the most common topic; other topics addressed chemotherapy side effects and patient history, among others. Mean duration of the videos was 8.09 minutes, with a mean 82,215.38 views and a mean 65.21 daily views.

Views were much higher for videos uploaded by independent users (median 6368.0 views) compared with videos uploaded by official health institutions (median 681.50 views; P =.006). 

However, the modified DISCERN score and GQS were significantly higher for the videos from health institutions compared with those from independent users (P <.001).

The video/like ratio was similar, with a median 100.00 likes for health institutions’ videos and 88.63 likes for independent users’ videos (P >.05).

The researchers noted that determining the specific reasons for the differences in likes and comments between the 2 types of videos was not possible. 

“This highlights the urgent need to improve online health information standards, especially for vulnerable groups such as children undergoing chemotherapy. To address this, healthcare professionals should be encouraged to upload videos with accurate information, guiding patients appropriately toward childhood cancer treatments,” the researchers noted in their conclusion.

The researchers called for more collaboration between healthcare providers and institutions and content creators to make sure that future content will be reliable and provide trustworthy information that will guide patients toward appropriate treatment.