Assessment of the quality and reliability of the information on lateral epicondylitis surgery on YouTube

Abstract

Aim: To investigate the quality and reliability of videos related to lateral epicondylitis (LE) surgery on YouTube® and to define a new scoring system that can be used to assess online information about LE.

Method: To conduct the study, a search on YouTube® using the words "lateral epicondylitis surgery" and "tennis elbow surgery" was conducted on February 15, 2022. The first 100 videos that appeared upon the search were included in the study. The videos were classified based on the type of publishing source as a medical doctor, medical center, and Commercial/Medical media agency. Two authors independently analyzed the videos. The quality and reliability of the videos were examined using DISCERN score, Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) score, Health on the Net (HON) score, and a novel YouTube® LE-score (LES). Video Power Index (VPI) and View Ratio (VR) were used to assess the popularity of videos.

Results: A total of 29 videos were included in the study. There was no significant difference between the groups in terms of DISCERN, JAMA, HON, and LES scores. Although the group of medical doctors had much higher VRs and VPIs, there was no significant difference between the groups. LES score was found to be positively correlated with DISCERN, JAMA and HON (rho 0.879, p< 0.001; rho 0.709, p < 0.001; rho, 0.838, p < 0.001, respectively).

Conclusion: The quality and reliability of the online information made available by YouTube® concerning LE surgery had an average level of quality and reliability. In addition, the LES scoring system created by us was highly compatible with the DISCERN and JAMA scoring systems accepted in the literature. It can be used as evaluation scoring in searches about lateral epicondylitis.