Health Information in Social Media: An Evaluation of YouTube Videos

Abstract

New media hold the rapid dominance over the health information. People acquire the health information in different social media which includes YouTube, popular video sharing site. A systematic protocol was used to locate the 200 videos on YouTube in 20 different health topics. Blind coding was followed with two independent coders in the topics of authorship, channel types, information in video, elements shown in video, and the authenticity of the health information was analyzed using the eight standard HONCode principles. Profit organization took the major role of presenting the 109 (54.5%) health information videos on YouTube. Majority of the health information video produced by the profit organization lay in the field of medium (3-5) HONCode result, even the consumer authorship was the highly represented in the profit organization. The authenticated sources like educational institutions, Government organizations, Medical center, and Non-Profit organization do produces the highly authenticated (6-8 HONCode) health information; but their volume of producing the videos is quite low.