YouTube as a New Medium for Dementia Education Among Chinese Americans

As one of the most popular social media used around the world, YouTube may be able to serve as a new medium for mental health education. This study aims to analyze and compare the performance of YouTube in disseminating dementia education to Chinese Americans at different time points of the upload period.

Dementia educational videos were uploaded to YouTube. Data was collected over a 36-month period. Results from the first year was compared to those from the third year using descriptive statistics and chi square analysis.

The dementia educational videos had a total of 9724 viewers, a total combined watch time of 61,720 min, and an overall average view duration of 6.32 min. Compared to the first year, the videos in their third year performed better in delivering content to the targeted viewers (≥ 45 years old). During the third year, the videos had a significant increase in the percentage of viewers who were 45 years or older. The average view duration of viewers who were older than 65 years old was 38.2% longer than viewers who were younger than 25 years old.

Over the span of 3 years, YouTube was able to tailor the dementia educational videos to the older population (≥ 45 years old) who were at the highest risk of dementia. YouTube is a valuable tool that is able to deliver content to interested audience across different age groups.