Social Media, Misinformation, and Online Patient Education in Emergency General Surgical Procedures

Patients use the internet to learn about diagnoses and treatment options. These sources vary in quality and accuracy of medical information. Thus, utilization of social media may lead to misinformation regarding treatment for patients in need of emergent general surgery procedures.

YouTube was searched with keywords "cholecystectomy," "cholecystitis," and "gallbladder surgery" and "appendectomy," "appendicitis," and "appendix surgery." For each procedure, the 100 videos with the greatest views were reviewed. Videos were assessed by four surgical trainees using validated instruments, DISCERN and the Patient Education Materials Assessment Tool (PEMAT), and Likert scales for patient education and misinformation. After appendectomy or cholecystectomy, patients completed a survey assessing use of social media preoperatively.

The median DISCERN score was 28.0 of 75. The median PEMAT scores were 66.7% for understandability and 0% for actionability. Nearly half (49%) of videos provided no patient education and only 22% provided moderate or more. More than a third (35%) of videos contained misinformation. Doctors, medical education, and healthcare systems published videos with less misinformation, whereas patients, health/wellness groups published more misinformation (P < 0.001). Videos discoverable with colloquial terms "appendix surgery" and "gallbladder surgery" were more likely to contain misinformation (45.3%) compared to 20.5% of videos with misinformation discoverable using medical search terms only (P < 0.001).

There is a range of video quality online with most videos of poor quality and provide little patient education. Understanding information available to patients online can tailor surgeon-patient discussions to combat misinformation and improve the informed consent process for patients.