Will YouTube Platform be the Main Source of Patients’ Knowledge about Frailty?

Nowadays, the living conditions are better and people have definitely better healthcare. That is the reason for population aging. The World Health Organization (WHO) provides that: ‘By 2030, 1 in 6 people in the world will be aged 60 years or over.’ The bigger the population of 60 years and over people is, the higher healthcare standard has to be. The aging population has specific characteristics. The variety of older people is really high, some of them are in good condition but some of them are dependent and frail. Frailty syndrome affects about 18% of the European population aged 65 and over [1]. Weakness, slowness, fallings, fatigue, and many more describe frailty. It is challenging for the patient, their family and caregivers. The knowledge about frailty should be increased. To meet up this problem, the YouTube platform could be used. This platform could be useful for searching health information but with caution because the quality is diverse. It is important to evaluate the quality and reliability of medical videos. There are some papers that present the evaluation of videos about diseases or operations. Consequently, the authors of the article “Concerns of Quality and Reliability of Educational Videos Focused on Frailty Syndrome on YouTube Platform” prepared the evaluation of videos focused on frailty syndrome [2]. 

The videos could be evaluated by approved tools such as quality criteria for consumer health information (DISCERN), the Global Quality Score (GQS), and the Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA). DISCERN is a scoring system consisting of 16 questions, each with 5 points. It is used to rate the reliability. While GQS is used to rate the quality and is a one-choice assessment scored between 1 and 5. JAMA consists of 4 questions, each with a score of 1, used to rate the quality and reliability. Authors also analysed basic parameters of videos such as video provider, content and duration of the video, view count, average daily views, channel subscribers, the number of days since the upload date, likes, dislikes, comments, the external webpages linked to the videos. 

Undertaking researches related to the evaluation of the quality of YouTube videos from various fields may help in increasing the patients’ awareness and knowledge. Some articles presented the results which clearly showed that the quality of videos is poor [3-5]. However, there are papers with opposite results, which is quite promising [6,7]. Poor quality videos could make conflicts between patient and doctor, lose trust and confuse the patients. The Internet contains a large amount of medical information, but inappropriate websites can mislead patients [8]. The standardized tools could be used to evaluate the quality of videos, and the misinformation could be solved. The information provided in the videos should contain high quality data. Combining the content of the videos and information given by physicians could improve the outcome of healthcare. Physicians could emphasize that patients need to be aware when searching medical information from the YouTube platform. 

Patients and their caregivers could increase knowledge and raise awareness about frailty syndrome using YouTube, it would be essential for the management and help in the prevention of it. The videos focused on frailty syndrome contain information about prevention, risk factors, symptoms, diet programs, and appropriate exercises. The quality of videos mostly depends on the authorship [2]. To sum up, the YouTube platform could be an essential source of information for patients, because the number of videos and users is still increasing. It could be the future of healthcare, using online tools the cooperation between physicians and patients would be better.

1. O'Caoimh R, Galluzzo L, Rodríguez-Laso Á, Van der Heyden J, Ranhoff AH, et al. (2018) Prevalence of frailty at population level in European ADVANTAGE Joint Action Member States: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Ann Ist Super Sanita 54: 226-238.
2. Hawryluk NM, Stompór M, Joniec EZ (2022) Concerns of Quality and Reliability of Educational Videos Focused on Frailty Syndrome on YouTube Platform. Geriatrics 7: 3.
3. Kuru T, Erken HY (2020) Evaluation of the quality and reliability of youtube videos on rotator cuff tears. Cureus 12: 6852.
4. Cassidy JT, Fitzgerald E, Cassidy ES, Cleary M, Byrne DP, et al. (2018) YouTube provides poor information regarding anterior cruciate ligament injury and reconstruction. Knee Surg Sports Traumatol Arthrosc 26: 840-845.
5. Yaradilmis YU, Evren AT, Okkaoglu MC, Öztürk Ö, Haberal B, et al. (2020) Evaluation of quality and reliability of YouTube videos on spondylolisthesis. Interdisciplinary Neurosurgery 22: 100827.
6. Szmuda T, Alkhater A, Albrahim M, Alquraya E, Ali S, et al. (2020) YouTube as a source of patient information for stroke: A content-quality and an audience engagement analysis. J Stroke Cerebrovasc Dis 29: 105065.
7. Ng CH, Lim GRS, Fong W (2020) Quality of English-language videos on YouTube as a source of information on systemic lupus erythematosus. International Journal of Rheumatic Diseases 23: 1636-1644.
8. Swire-Thompson B, Lazer D (2020) Public Health and Online Misinformation: Challenges and Recommendations. Annu Rev Public Health 41: 433-451.