Want to build a spice rack for your kitchen? Take a YouTube video to see how it can be done. Do you have allergic rhinitis (hay fever) symptoms that just won’t go away? Don’t do a random YouTube search because the information you find there has a good chance of being inaccurate. A new study in Annals of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology, the scientific journal of the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI), showed that misleading content generated a greater amount of user interaction in terms of likes and comments that videos with useful content. .
According to research, 70% of patients with a chronic disease are influenced by information they get from online sources, and a quarter of Internet users have watched an online video about a health or medical problem. Our study found that YouTube viewers may be unable to distinguish science-based information from misinformation. When we reviewed YouTube videos on the topic of allergic rhinitis, we found that less than half of the videos provided useful information.”
Celine Lund-Nielsen Remvig, BSc, lead author of the study
The study authors analyzed 86 YouTube videos: 33 for “allergic rhinitis,” 31 for “hay fever,” and 22 for “allergy.” Content was classified as helpful (conveying scientifically correct information), misleading (conveying at least one scientifically unproven detail), or neither helpful nor misleading (not misleading, but does not provide useful information about epidemiology, symptoms, or diagnosis). Only 17.5% of videos were uploaded by a specialist, doctor or healthcare provider, while 39.5% were uploaded from a TV show or YouTube channel.
“If our patients go online to find information about their allergies, we want the information they find to be reliable,” says allergist David Stukus, MD, associate editor of Annals. Dr. Stukus was not involved in the investigation. “This study found that medical/healthcare associations tend to be the most reliable source of information, while TV shows and YouTube channels are responsible for the most misleading videos. All videos uploaded by the associations were ranked as helpful, while only 32% of videos uploaded by TV shows or YouTube channels were rated as helpful.”
Source:
American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI)