YouTube^™ for information on paediatric oral health instructions

Parents and caregivers of paediatric patients usually tend to search for health information on social networks and other online platforms. At this point, the quality and reliability of these sources play an essential part in maintaining the oral health of paediatric patients.

The recent study aimed to analyse the reliability, quality and content of YouTube^™ videos on paediatric oral health instructions; assess the efficacy of these videos; and help health providers lead the parents accessing accurate information on the subject mentioned.

The searching term was detected as 'children oral health' (Google Trends Application). The first 150 videos were taken into the study. Six excluding criteria were used, and 40 videos have lasted for the further examinations. Content headings were determined according to the AAPD guidelines on paediatric oral health. The content analysis scores, reliability scores and Global Quality Score were calculated for each of these 40 videos. SPSS 26 statistical software was used in the statistical analysis process of the data; p < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.

The recent study results showed that according to content analyses, the videos were classified as 'poor' content with the mean values 4.07 (±1.32). The mean reliability score 2.96 (±0.69) has shown that the reliability of the videos was moderate. Mean Global Quality Score values were 2.95 (±0.73), which means the subjects were moderate quality. The mean reliability of the rich content videos (3.39 ± 0.59) and the Global Quality Score of them (3.43 ± 0.62) were statistically higher compared to the average values of the poor content videos (respectively; 2.73 ± 0.64; 2.69 ± 0.66) (p < 0.05) The average number of likes, dislikes, length, interaction index and viewing rate of rich content videos were higher than the same features of poor content videos (p < 0.05). The videos with rich content were determined in the first 50 videos listed for analyses, and the distribution of the included videos on the list was equally.

The present study concluded that the YouTube™ videos providing oral health instructions for paediatric patients and their parents had poor content, medium quality and reliability. Although all the listed content headings were not mentioned in the videos, the content of them still may be useful and educational for individuals. However, dental hygiene practitioners and dentists should be aware of the need in this area and put more effort into improving the YouTube^™ videos on children's oral health in a more detailed way regarding content headings, quality and reliability.