YouTube Is a Poor-Quality Source for Patient Information Regarding Patellar Dislocations

To evaluate the content and quality of YouTube videos concerning patellar dislocations.

"Patellar dislocation" and "kneecap dislocation" were searched on the YouTube library. The Uniform Resource Locator of the first 25 suggested videos was extracted, for a total of 50 videos. The following variables were collected for each video: number of views, duration in minutes, video source/uploader, content type, days since upload, view ratio (views/day), and number of likes. Video source/uploader was categorized as academic, physician, nonphysician, medical source, patient, commercial, and other. The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), Global Quality Scale (GQS), Patellar Dislocation Specific Score (PDSS), and DISCERN scores were used to assess each video. A series of linear regression models were used to explore relationships between each of these scores and the aforementioned variables.

The median video length was 4.11 minutes (interquartile range 2.07-6.03, range 0.31-53.56), and the total number of views for all 50 videos was 3,697,587 views. The mean overall JAMA benchmark score ± standard deviation was 2.56 ± 0.64, GQS: 3.54 ± 1.05, total PDSS: 5.76 ± 3.42. Physicians were the most common video source/uploader (42%). Academic sources had the greatest mean JAMA benchmark score (3.20), whereas nonphysician and physician sources had the greatest mean GQS scores (4.09 and 3.95, respectively). Videos uploaded by physicians had the greatest PDSS scores (7.5).

The overall transparency, reliability, and content quality of YouTube videos on patellar dislocation measured by the JAMA benchmark score and PDSS, respectively, are poor. Additionally, the overall educational and video quality, as assessed by the GQS, was intermediate.

It is important to understand the quality of information patients receive on YouTube so providers can guide patients to greater-quality sources.