Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the content and quality of YouTube videos about distraction osteogenesis (DO) in the craniofacial region.
Methods: The term "distraction osteogenesis" was searched on YouTube. After sorting by relevance, 80 videos were selected from 128 search results for analysis of general characteristics, primary purpose, information reliability, audiovisual quality, global quality scale (GQS), and viewers' interaction index. Viewing rate formulae were calculated for each YouTube video. The Mann-Whitney U test and Spearman correlation coefficient were used for statistical analysis.
Results: We classified 22 (27.5%) of the 80 videos as moderate/high-content and 58 (72.5%) as low-content. Most YouTube videos about DO were uploaded by doctors (45%) and information about DO was the most covered topic (61%). Videos from commercial companies had significantly higher GQS scores than videos uploaded by other groups (P = 0.040). In low-information content videos, GQS was highly correlated with the number of likes, whereas in moderate/high-content videos it was highly correlated with viewing rates.
Conclusions: YouTube is insufficient source of information about DO and academic institutions have more responsibility in developing this situation and directing patients to reliable social media or Internet sources.
Copyright © 2021 by Mutaz B. Habal, MD.