Context: Cupping is a complementary and alternative therapy that attracts much attention on social media.
Objectivet: The study intended to examine the types of user-generated content found on YouTube on the practice of cupping therapy as a form of pain management.
Designt: The current research team searched YouTube for videos on cupping therapy on August 14, 2016.
Settingt: The Internet was accessed from Wayne, NJ, USA.
Outcome measurest: The research team manually coded the 100 most widely viewed, cupping videos for content and sources. Logistic regression was applied to obtain the association of video source-consumer, news, or professional-to each of the 21 content categories.
Resultst: In total, the 100 videos were viewed more than 36.80 million times. Among them, 52 were consumer videos; 16 were professional videos; and 32 were news videos. Compared to news videos, (1) the odds of consumer videos mentioning what cupping is were 85.90% lower-odds ratio (OR) = 0.14, 95% confidence interval (CI) (0.04 to 0.52), P < .01; (2) the odds of consumer videos and professional videos mentioning an increase in blood flow as a benefit were 93.50% lower-OR = 0.07, 95% CI (0.02 to 0.24), P < .01-and 82.80% lower-OR = 0.17, 95% CI (0.04 to 0.82), P = .03, respectively; and (3) the odds of consumer videos mentioning a decrease in inflammation as a benefit were 92.9% lower-OR = 0.07, 95% CI (0.02 to 0.21), P < .01.
Conclusionst: The current study found that, despite the large presence of consumer-based videos in YouTube regarding cupping therapy, news sources were more widely viewed. Health professionals could engage more with YouTube by providing clear and authentic information about a popular alternative therapy.