The Reliability and Quality of YouTube Videos as a Source of Information on Buerger's Disease: A Cross-Sectional Study.

Background: Patients are increasingly referring to the internet after a diagnosis of vascular disease. This study was performed to quantitatively define the accuracy and reliability of information on YouTube regarding Buerger's Disease (BD).

Methods: A systematic search of YouTube was conducted using BD and thromboangiitis obliterans keywords. The default YouTube search setting of "relevance" was used to replicate an average search attempt, and the first 50 results from each keyword search were reviewed and analyzed by 2 independent reviewers. Descriptive characteristics, Journal of the American Medical Association Score (JAMAS), modified DISCERN score, Global Quality Score (GQS) were used to record data.

Results: A total of 50 videos were reviewed for the study. The mean JAMAS, modified DISCERN, and GQS values among the videos were 2.06/4.00 (standard deviation [SD], 0.91), 2.36/5.00 (SD, 1.39), and 2.6/5.00 (SD, 1.16) respectively. When the videos were analyzed according to the user types uploading them, the modified DISCERN score was found to be significantly higher (3.57/5.00 SD, 0.97) in the videos uploaded by vascular surgeons (P = 0.029). High-quality videos were determined as more recent (P = 0.048). It was observed that the modified DISCERN and JAMA scores increased as the video quality increased.

Conclusions: While variable in source and content, the completeness and reliability of the information presented on YouTube about BD is poor. We believe that these videos should be uploaded more up-to-date and comprehensively by medical professionals, especially medical doctors.