YouTube as a Patient-Information Source for Cleft Lip and Palate

Abstract

Objective:

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the content and quality of the popular videos on YouTube^TM about the treatment of cleft lip and palate.

Design:

Retrospective, YouTube^TM video analysis.

Methods:

The 3 keywords “cleft lip and palate surgery,” “cleft lip and palate treatment,” and “cleft lip and palate repair” were searched on YouTube^TM. After sorted by view-count, final 50 videos were analyzed for general characteristics, primary purpose, information content, relevance, audiovisual quality, and also viewers’ interaction index, and viewing rate formulas were calculated for each video. Kruskal Wallis and one-way analysis of variance tests were used to compare the video parameters between good, moderate, and poor information content videos.

Results:

The viewing rate was significantly higher in good content videos (P = .003). Most of the videos were uploaded by a clinic (32%), a surgeon (20%), or individuals (22%) who shared their own experience. Most of the videos (54.00%) were classified as moderate general information content and 26.00% were rated as poor, and 20.00% were rated as good. Videos generally involved patient information (60.00%), followed by patient parent’s experience (14.00%), and cleft lip and palate surgery (12.00%). The average viewers’ interaction index of all evaluated YouTube^TM videos was 0.36.

Conclusions:

Although most of the videos were rated as moderate regarding the sufficiency of the information, the results of this study showed that YouTube^TM could still not be considered as a fully reliable source of information for patients on treatment of cleft lip and palate.