Inadequate informative capacity of arthroscopic lateral epicondylitis treatmentrelated youtube videos

Abstract

Background: In the literature, the quality of YouTube videos about lateral epicondylitis has been investigated by researchers so far. However, the quality of YouTube videos related to arthroscopic treatment has not been evaluated yet. So, this study aims to evaluate the informative capacity of YouTube videos related to arthroscopic lateral epicondylitis treatment. Methods: For the study, a standard YouTube search has been conducted by using the terms 'tennis elbow arthroscopic treatment' and 'lateral epicondylitis arthroscopic treatment. For each search query, the 50 most "relevant" videos, as determined by YouTube's algorithm, have been taken into consideration (a total of 100 videos). After the exclusion of several videos, a total of 58 videos are included in the analysis. The informative quality and capacity of the videos have been evaluated by using the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), Global Quality Score (GQS), DISCERN, and Lateral Epicondylitis Specific Score (LESS) scoring systems. Results: According to DISCERN, 18.97% of the videos are of poor-to-very poor quality. The rate is 34.49% for LESS. According to the GQS and JAMA scores, the rate of low-quality videos is 36.21% and 44.83%, respectively. In addition, it is also seen that the mean DISCERN, LESS, GQS, and JAMA scores are significantly higher in videos uploaded by non-physicians than in those uploaded by physicians (p<0.05). Conclusion: It can be concluded that YouTube videos related to arthroscopic lateral epicondylitis treatment have a poor informative capacity. This issue has to be paid attention to by orthopaedic surgeons and they should lead the patients to safer sources. Patients should be advised to consider searching for better quality and more informative resources when they want to seek information about in the arthroscopic treatment of lateral epicondylitis.