YouTube as a Source of Information on Inflammatory Muscle Diseases: Can It Provide Valid and Reliable Information for Patients as Well as Healthcare Professionals?

Abstract

Objective: The increasing use of the internet has resulted in its gaining a more active role in both patient and professional education, including the YouTube platform, a popular platform for sharing and watching videos. This study aimed to evaluate the quality, usefulness, and reliability of videos on inflammatory muscle diseases on YouTube, as well as their determinants for both patient and healthcare professional education. Materials and Methods: The keywords “Inflammatory muscle disease”, “Idiopathic inflammatory myositis”, “Inflammatory muscle disease treatment”, “Inflammatory myositis treatment”, “Dermatomyositis” and “Polymyositis” were searched on the site on April 22nd, 2022. According to the Global Quality scale, three categories (high quality, middle quality, and low quality) were created based on the educational value of YouTube videos. The reliability of the information was assessed using the DISCERN tool. The video parameters were compared between the quality groups to reveal the determinants of the quality. Results: Seventy-five videos of patients and 116 videos of healthcare professionals were included in the video after exclusion. The numbers of high, intermediate and low-quality videos were 27 (36%), 27 (36%), and 21 (28%) for videos for patients, and 20 (17.2%), 60 (51.8%), and 36 (31%), respectively. Only the number of likes was found to be a determinant of video quality for healthcare professionals (p<0.05), and none of the other determinants were found to predict the quality for both groups (p>0.05). Conclusion: YouTube is an open platform for information, and it includes various educational videos of various quality. Experts, such as physicians, should be encouraged to provide more content to help both patients and healthcare professionals obtain better quality information. © 2025 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.