How social media meet patients’ questions: YouTube™ review for children oral thrush

J Biol Regul Homeost Agents. 2018 Jan-Feb;32(2 Suppl. 1):101-106.

Abstract

YouTube™ is increasingly being used by patients to obtain health-related information. No studies have evaluated the content of YouTube™ videos on children oral thrush. The aim of this work is to examine the quality of information offered by this platform about oral thrush in children. Searching term “oral thrush in children” (OTC) displayed a total of 2.790 results. Of the top 60 videos analyzed, 27 were excluded. The main source of upload was from generalist information YouTube® channels (GC) followed by healthcare professionals (HP), individual users (IU), and healthcare information channels (HC); usefulness of videos is successfully correlated with the number of visualization, number of likes and viewing rate and was interdependent with the number of visualizations, number of likes and VR. However, videos on the oral thrush do not have satisfactory quality information. HP themselves, along with HC, do not seem to provide more appropriate information on COT, than GC or IU.

MeSH terms

  • Candidiasis, Oral*
  • Child
  • Humans
  • Patient Education as Topic / methods*
  • Patient Education as Topic / standards*
  • Social Media / standards*
  • Video Recording / standards*