Assessing the Quality of Social Media Content Regarding Facial Paralysis and Reanimation

Introduction: Patients frequently use social media to direct their health care. However, the quality of social media posts regarding facial paralysis and reanimation is unclear. Objective: To assess the quality of facial reanimation posts on social media. Methods: Ten key search terms were used to search YouTube and Facebook. The top 10 posts for each search term were graded using a variety of parameters including the Global Quality Score (GQS), Modified DISCERN, Journal of the American Medical Association Criteria, and a novel Social Media Quality Score (SMQS) which was created by the authors. Results: There was a significant difference in SMQS (P = .035) and GQS (P = .01) between YouTube and Facebook Videos. For YouTube videos, there was a significant difference in SMQS scores (P = .003) between various search terms. For Facebook videos, there was a significant difference in both SMQS (P < .0001) and Modified DISCERN (P = .036) scores. The majority of videos evaluated were of moderate or low quality. Conclusion: Higher quality posts regarding facial reanimation are needed on social media. As health care providers, we must provide patients with appropriate resources to find high-quality posts, and when posting content, we must carefully curate the "key words" so that patients can easily find high-quality content.