Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Mar;39(3):935-942.
doi: 10.1007/s00345-020-03236-6. Epub 2020 May 28.

Systematic assessment of information about surgical urinary stone treatment on YouTube

Manolis Pratsinis  1 , Dominik Abt  1 , Gautier Müllhaupt  1 , Janine Langenauer  1 , Thomas Knoll  2 , Hans-Peter Schmid  1 , Valentin Zumstein  1 , Patrick Betschart  3
Affiliations

Systematic assessment of information about surgical urinary stone treatment on YouTube

Manolis Pratsinis et al. World J Urol. 2021 Mar.

Abstract

Purpose: To systematically assess the quality of videos on the surgical treatment of urinary stones available on YouTube using validated instruments.

Methods: A systematic search for videos on YouTube addressing treatment options of urinary stones was performed in October 2019. Assessed parameters included basic data (e.g. number of views), the grade of misinformation reporting of conflicts of interest. Quality of content was analyzed using the validated DISCERN questionnaire. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics.

Results: A total of 100 videos with a median of 26,234 views (1020-1,720,521) were included in the analysis. Of these, only 26 videos were rated to contain no misinformation and only nine disclosed potential conflicts of interest. Overall, the median quality of the videos was low (2 out of 5 points for DISCERN question 16). Videos uploaded by healthcare professionals and medical societies/organizations offered significantly higher levels of quality. In particular, the videos provided by the EAU achieved the highest rating with a median score of 3.0.

Conclusions: The majority of videos concerning the surgical treatment of urinary stones have a low quality of content, are potentially subject to commercial bias and do not report on conflicts of interest. Videos provided by medical societies, such as the EAU, provide a higher level of quality. This highlights the importance of active recommendation of evidence-based patient education materials.

Keywords: Kidney stone; Patient information; Social media; Ureter stone; YouTube.

PubMed Disclaimer

Comment in

References

    1. Fox S (2014) Pew Research Center. 2014. The social life of health information. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/01/15/the-social-life-of-heal... . Accessed June 2019
    1. YouTube for Press (2019) https://www.youtube.com/about/press/ . Accessed 24 Nov 2019
    1. Hansen C, Interrante JD, Ailes EC, Frey MT, Broussard CS, Godoshian VJ, Lewis C, Polen KN, Garcia AP, Gilboa SM (2016) Assessment of YouTube videos as a source of information on medication use in pregnancy. Pharmacoepidemiol Drug Saf 25(1):35–44. https://doi.org/10.1002/pds.3911 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Sood A, Sarangi S, Pandey A, Murugiah K (2011) YouTube as a source of information on kidney stone disease. Urology 77(3):558–562. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.urology.2010.07.536 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Steinberg PL, Wason S, Stern JM, Deters L, Kowal B, Seigne J (2010) YouTube as source of prostate cancer information. Urology 75(3):619–622. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.urology.2008.07.059 - DOI - PubMed