Assessment of the consistency between YouTube videos and scientific evidence on paediatric myopia control

Myopia is a public health concern, and its prevalence is estimated to increase in the near future. Multiple myopia control strategies have been developed to slow myopia progression and reduce potential ocular alterations. Public interest in myopia and its management has increased, with parents seeking information on myopia from available sources, such as the internet. The goal of this study was to systematically evaluate the quality, reliability, and educational value of YouTube videos for myopia control in children and their alignment with current scientific evidence and clinical guidelines.

A comprehensive search was conducted on YouTube in February 2025 using four primary keywords related to myopia control in children, both in English and Spanish. The first 50 videos for each keyword were screened; of the resulting 400 videos, 235 met the inclusion criteria. Three optometrists independently assessed the videos via the modified DISCERN (mDISCERN), the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) benchmarks, and the Global Quality Score (GQS). Interobserver reliability was evaluated using two-way mixed-effects intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) with absolute agreement. Quantitative engagement metrics (views, likes, dislikes, the view ratio, and the video power index (VPI) were also recorded. Non-parametric tests were used for subgroup comparisons by language, topic, source, and presenter gender, with Bonferroni adjustments applied for multiple comparisons.

Among the 235 videos analysed, 52.8% were in English, and 47.2% were in Spanish. Overall video quality and reliability were highly variable. Interobserver reliability across the entire dataset was good for GQS (ICC = 0.832) and mDISCERN (ICC = 0.750), but poor for JAMA (ICC = 0.447). Good interevaluator agreement was maintained across all tools for Spanish videos (ICC range: 0.701-0.803), whereas English videos showed lower agreement for mDISCERN (ICC = 0.768) and JAMA (ICC = 0.536), but excellent agreement for GQS (ICC = 0.849). Spanish-language videos scored significantly higher on mDISCERN (P = 0.026), while JAMA and GQS scores showed no significant differences between languages after adjusting for multiple comparisons. Videos from universities or professional organisations were of higher quality and reliability but constituted a minority of the sample. The presenter's gender did not impact quality or engagement. English-language videos had higher view ratios and VPI values, indicating greater visibility, although not necessarily higher scientific quality.

YouTube provides a wide range of content on pediatric myopia control, but its overall quality, realiability and scientific alignment are inconsistent. The use of standardized evaluation tools reveals significant differences in subjective assessment depending on the scoring instrument and video language. The increased participation of healthcare professionals in creating evidence-based videos is needed to increase public health literacy.