Decoding YouTube: An In-depth Analysis of Living Donor Kidney Transplantation Videos and Their Implications for Patient Education

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: YouTube is an open online video platform that both patients and health care professionals use to access information. Our aim was to evaluate the quality of videos related to living-donor kidney transplantation (LDKT) on YouTube. METHODS: Research was conducted using the keywords "living donor kidney transplant" and "kidney transplant". We evaluated videos with more than 10 000 views and excluded those not in English. A total of 58 videos met the criteria for inclusion in the evaluation. We used the modified DISCERN tool, the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) benchmark score, and the Global Quality Score (GQS) to evaluate the quality, accuracy, and educational value. KEY FINDINGS AND LIMITATIONS: The quality of the videos was low, with a median DISCERN score of 1 (interquartile range [IQR] 1-2), JAMA score of 1 (IQR 1-2), and GQS of 2 (IQR 1-3). The majority of the videos were of North American origin (75.9%) and focused on the patient experience (51.7%). The scores for patient experience videos were significantly lower than for other videos according to all three scoring systems (p < 0.001). Videos uploaded by medical centers and private physicians/nurses had significantly higher scores than videos uploaded by patients or by TV shows/programs. Evaluation of only videos with English audio is a limitation of the study. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS: Assessment of YouTube videos presenting information on LDKT revealed low quality. Health care organizations should create online resources and share them on social media platforms. PATIENT SUMMARY: We looked at the quality of YouTube videos on kidney transplantation using a kidney from a living donor. We found that the information presented in YouTube videos on this topic is of low quality.