Social media are widely used information tools, including the medical/health field. Unfortunately, the levels of misinformation on these platforms seem to be high, with a medium-low quality of the proposed content, as evidenced by previous studies. You Tube is one of the most important platforms for audio/video content. It shows content to users through a recommendation algorithm system.
We have classified in two cohorts the first results obtained by researching "bladder tumor treatment" on You Tube through two different user profiles: "Cohort A" with a not logged-in session in incognito mode (46 videos enrolled) and "Cohort B" with a logged-in session with a physician profile (50 videos enrolled). The videos were evaluated using validated instruments such as DISCERN and PEMAT-AV Furthermore, we used a Likert's scale for the evaluation of levels of misinformation.
Overall quality of information was moderate to poor (DISCERN 3) in 54% of cohort A and 24% of cohort B. Moreover, a high degree of misinformation (Likert score 3) was found in 52% of cohort A cases and 32% of cohort B.
Levels of misinformation in both cohorts are positively correlated to the number of views per month. Globally, the levels of information quality, understandability and actionability are lower for the results obtained from searches performed with anonymous user profile (Cohort A).
Archivio italiano di urologia, andrologia : organo ufficiale [di] Societa italiana di ecografia urologica e nefrologica. 2024 Feb 16 [Epub ahead of print]
Pier Paolo Prontera, Francesca Romana Prusciano, Marco Lattarulo, Emanuele Utano, Francesco Schiralli, Carmine Sciorio, Lorenzo Romano, Francesco Saverio Grossi
Department of Urology, "S.S. Annunziata" Hospital, Taranto. ., Department of Emergency and Organ Transplantation-Urology, Andrology and Kidney Transplatation Unit, University of Bari, Bari. ., Department of Urology, "S.S. Annunziata" Hospital, Taranto. ., Department of Urology, "S.S. Annunziata" Hospital, Taranto. ., Department of Urology, "Alessandro Manzoni" Hospital of Lecco, Lecco. ., Department of Neurosciences, Reproductive Sciences and Odontostomatology, University of Naples "Federico II", Naples. ., Department of Urology, "S.S. Annunziata" Hospital, Taranto. .