Youtube and Eosinophilic Esophagitis: an Assessment of the Educational Quality of Information

Introduction: Eosinophilic Esophagitis (EoE) is a rare allergic inflammatory disease affecting approximately 1-4 in every 10,000 individuals in the United States. With the dramatic increase in prevalence of EoE in recent years and the increasing use of the internet as a source of health care information, we sought to evaluate the educational quality of EoE videos on YouTube. Methods: We performed a YouTube search using the keyword “eosinophilic esophagitis” from September 8-27, 2016. All available videos were included and analyzed for video characteristics, source, and content. Source was further classified as health-care provider, alternative-medicine provider, patient and/or patient's parents, company, media, or professional society. A scoring system was created based on current guidelines to evaluate the quality of information (-10 to +30 points).Negative points were assigned for misleading information. Six blinded reviewers scored each video independently. Results: Two hundred and nine videos were analyzed, with a median of 507 views, 1 like, 0 dislikes, and 0 comments. More video presenters were male (50.9%), and the most commonly depicted race was Caucasian (73.6%). The most common type of video source was professional society (39.7%), and the least represented video source was company and media (8.6%). Among the four video sources, the mean scores showed a statistically significant difference from each other (pConclusion: Youtube videos on EoE were shown to be a poor source of valid health care information. Videos by health care providers were a better source of information compared to other sources. This study reiterates the need for higher quality educational videos on EoE by the medical community.