Physician-led YouTube videos related to anterior cruciate ligament injuries provide higher-quality educational content compared to other sources

Introduction: Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries and ACL reconstruction (ACLR) surgery are very common. Patients increasingly use social media platforms like YouTube to find healthcare information to help them make medical decisions. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the quality of YouTube videos providing information about ACL injuries and ACL surgery.

Methods: The most-viewed YouTube videos for ACL-associated search terms were reviewed for inclusion and assessed by two authors using four video quality assessment tools: the Journal of American Medical Association benchmark (JAMA) (0-4), Global Quality Score (GQS) (1-5), modified DISCERN (mod-DISCERN) (0-5), and YouTube ACL Specific Score (the score) (0-25). Intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) were calculated to determine interrater reliability. Unpaired t-tests were used for comparisons between groups and linear regressions to identify associations.

Results: There were 45 videos that met the inclusion criteria. Overall, 31.1% of videos reported an academic affiliation, and 53.3% listed an MD as the lead author. The mean JAMA score was 2.8, GQS 3.2, mod-DISCERN 2.6, and overall the score 5.9. There was good interobserver agreement across all quality tools (ICC>0.75). Videos with an MD lead author had significantly higher JAMA (p ​< ​0.001) and GQS (p ​< ​0.01) scores than those led by non-physicians. Videos with academic affiliations had significantly higher JAMA (p ​< ​0.001), GQS (p ​< ​0.01), mod-DISCERN (p ​< ​0.01), and the score Management Domain (p ​= ​0.04) scores.

Conclusion: Among the most-viewed YouTube videos related to ACL injuries and ACL surgery, physician-led and academically affiliated videos provided higher quality educational information compared to other sources, however, the overall quality of content provided is low.

Level of evidence: Level IV.