Educational quality of autism treatment videos on YouTube

This study aimed to evaluate the educational quality and level of misinformation of the 100 most-viewed English-language YouTube videos on autism treatment notion and to compare the popularity of video groups created according to treatment recommendations.

The search terms 'autism treatment', 'autism cure', 'autism therapy' 'treating autism' and 'treatment of autism' were used to select 100 videos. Each video was evaluated using DISCERN and JAMAS scales. The treatment modality mentioned as the main topic in the video was classified in three groups.

The total number of thumbs-up (likes) and thumbs-down (dislikes) and comments count for these videos were 1.291.319; 49.750 and 191.462, respectively. 36% of videos were of poor quality (average score of 1.86 points) and contained varying degrees of misinformation compared to the existing body of evidence. The mean 'accuracy level' of the videos was 4.15 and the average balance level was 2.02. As the level of misinformation in videos increased, there was a notable increase in the number of likes and an optimized popularity metric. The three treatment groups differed significantly in terms of the popularity-based metadata (thumbs up, thumbs down, comment count, optimized popularity metrics (MV, LV); p-values respectively; <0.001, 0.004, 0.001, 0.011, <0.001) except views (p = 0.085).

Various concerns exist about the accuracy of the information, the presence of misleading content, and the educational quality of YouTube videos on autism. It is crucial to employ a critical approach when utilizing this information, considering the origin of the videos.