Breast cancer screening literacy information on online platforms: A content analysis of YouTube videos

Abstract

BACKGROUND: The YouTube platform has great potential of serving as a healthcare resource due to its easy accessibility, navigability and wide audience reach. Breast cancer screening is an important preventative measure that can reduce breast cancer mortality by 40%. Therefore, platforms being used as a healthcare resources, such as YouTube, can and should be used to advocate for essential preventative measures such as breast cancer screening. METHODS: In this study, the usefulness of videos related to breast cancer and breast cancer screening were analyzed. Videos were first screened for inclusion and then were categorized into very useful, moderately useful, somewhat useful, and not useful categories according to a 10-point criteria scale developed by medical professionals based on existing breast cancer screening guidelines. Two reviewers independently assessed each video using the scale. RESULTS: 200 videos were identified in the preliminary analysis (100 for the search phrase ‘breast cancer’ and 100 for the search phrase ‘breast cancer screening’). After exclusion of duplicates and non-relevant videos, 162 videos were included in the final analysis. We found the following distribution of videos: 4.3% very useful, 17.9% moderately useful, 39.5% somewhat useful, and 38.3% not useful videos. There was a significant association between each of the following and the video’s level of usefulness: video length, the number of likes, and the uploading source. Longer videos were very useful, somewhat useful videos were the most liked, personally produced videos were the most not useful, and advertisements produced the highest ratio of very useful to not useful videos. CONCLUSION: It is necessary to create more reliable and useful healthcare resources for the general population as well as to monitor health information on easily accessible social platforms such as YouTube.

Content and quality of YouTube regarding women’s health: a scoping review

“…Additionally, there was one article each from Britain [ 17 ], Japan [ 14 ], South Korea [ 27 ], Saudi Arabia [ 15 ], Canada [ 24 ], and Italy [ 30 ]. The themes covered by the included studies comprised incontinence [ 12 , 20 , 23 ], breast cancer [ 18 , 19 ], and breast cancer examinations [ 24 ], arm exercise after breast cancer surgery [ 26 ], BRCA mutation test [ 29 ], pelvic organ prolapse [ 28 ], human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines [ 13 ], Papanicolaou (Pap) smear tests [ 21 ], women’s health information [ 14 ], female physical examinations [ 15 ], contraception [ 17 ], pregnancy information during COVID-19 [ 16 ], postpartum sexuality [ 22 ], obstetric epidural anesthesia [ 25 ], placenta accreta [ 30 ], sexual education [ 27 ], female urethroplasty [ 32 ], and female urinary tract infection [ 31 ] (one study each). There were 17 content analyses [ 12 , 13 , 15 - 16 , 18 - 20 , 23 - 26 , 28 - 32 ], two randomized studies [ 14 , 17 ], and two quasi-experimental studies [ 22 , 27 ].…”

“…The outcome variables used in the included studies comprised content quality [ 12 , 18 , 19 , 21 , 23 , 25 , 26 , 30 , 31 ], accuracy [ 16 , 18 , 19 , 31 , 32 ], reliability or credibility [ 21 , 23 , 26 , 30 - 32 ], usefulness [ 15 , 24 , 28 ], view count [ 14 , 29 ], sharing count [ 14 ], video length [ 29 ], tone [ 13 ], source [ 13 ], clarity [ 16 ], actionability [ 20 ], satisfaction [ 17 ], acceptance [ 22 ], penetration [ 22 ], understandability [ 20 ], readability [ 28 ], education quality [ 30 ], sexual knowledge [ 27 ], sexual attitudes [ 27 ], and parent-child relationships [ 27 ]. The measurement tools included DISCERN (a set of quality criteria developed for written consumer health information) [ 18 , 19 , 21 , 23 , 26 , 30 , 31 ], self-developed tools [ 16 , 22 ,…”

“…Incontinence-related videos had an average content quality score of 38.2±11.5 [ 23 ]. Only 4.3% of the respondents found videos related to breast cancer examinations to be very useful [ 24 ]. A significant portion of epidural anesthesia videos, ranging from 42% to 49%, were deemed inappropriate for not adhering to the aseptic technique [ 25 ].…”

“…The study highlights that videos on various themes related to women’s health have been posted on YouTube, with breast cancer being the most prevalent and popular theme. There was a total of five studies [ 18 , 19 , 24 , 26 , 29 ] on videos related to breast cancer, including two [ 18 , 19 ] on breast cancer itself and one each on gene testing [ 29 ], cancer screening [ 24 ], and rehabilitation postoperation [ 26 ]. The second most prevalent theme was female urinary diseases, which were covered in three studies [ 12 , 20 , 23 ], including one on urethroplasty [ 32 ] and one on urinary tract infection [ 31 ].…”

The effects of social media (Snapchat) interventions on the knowledge of oral health during pregnancy among pregnant women in Saudi Arabia

“…Other studies in the United States and Iran [ 12 , 24 ] indicated that social media is an effective method for increasing knowledge about oral health among pregnant women. However, the prior study used another social media platform (YouTube), which has wider accessibility than other social media platforms [ 25 ], and Telegram was also used as part of their intervention. This supports our finding that social media platforms are effective methods of boosting health-promoting interventions.…”