Should Emergency Physicians and Nurses Direct Their Patients to YouTube for Heparin Self-Injection Training? A Systematic Review of Social Media Videos

Abstract

Background: The aim of this study was to examine the content, reliability, popularity, and quality of YouTube videos for patients learning how to self-administer subcutaneous low molecular weight heparin injections.

Methods: A systematic review of YouTube videos was conducted on August 20, 2021, using the keywords of "Low-molecular-weight heparin injection," "Enoxaparin injection," "Heparin injection," "Dalteparin injection," and "Tinzaparin injection." Two independent emergency physicians evaluated included videos separately with 5 different score systems (1- Journal of American Medical Association Score, 2-The Video Power Index, 3- Global Quality Scale, 4- Modified 5 Point DISCERN, 5- Total Comprehensiveness Score).

Results: Of 458 videos, a total of 161 unique videos were included. Of these, 94 (58.4%) were classified as useful and 67 (41.6%) as containing misleading information. The total number of views was 6,245,284 in useful information videos. DISCERN score (median 4, P < .001), Global Quality Score (median 4, P < .001), Journal of American Medical Association Score (median 4, P < .001), and Total Comprehensiveness Score (median 6, P < .001) were higher in the Useful Information Group.

Conclusions: Nurse and physician prescreening and prescoring the accuracy and quality of specific low molecular weight heparin injection self-administration videos before recommending YouTube to patients is warranted. Policies to limit the spread of health misinformation through credibility scoring and evaluation are needed on social media sites such as YouTube.

Keywords: COVID-19; Heparin injection; LMWH injection; Online education; YouTube.