Background/Purpose: Vasculitides are defined as inflammation of the vessel wall of different organ systems with reactive damage of mural structures. Patient education in understanding the pathophysiology of the disease and its treatments can be challenging and affects medication compliance and disease outcomes. YouTube (YT) is one of the most popular websites with visual representations of healthcare topics recorded by a diverse group of people including patients, healthcare providers, organizations, universities, etc. There have been multiple studies done investigating the quality and reliability of information available on multiple diseases on YT. However, investigation of videos pertaining to vasculitis education is not known. Our objective was to review the quality of videos on vasculitis education and compare them to the popularity of each video.

Methods: A search was performed on YT using the term “vasculitis education.” A total of 30 videos were reviewed. Duration of the video, number of viewers, time since video, likes, and dislikes were recorded. The video power index (VPI) and view ratio (VR) were used to determine video popularity. The DISCERN instrument, a questionnaire developed for judgement of the quality of consumer health information, was used to determine quality and reliability of each video. We further collapsed the DISCERN summated score into two categories, Excellent (EQ) or Good (GQ) Quality (51-80) and Fair (FQ) or Poor Quality (PQ) (7-50) according to the standard score ranges. The Mann-Whitney U test was done to determine video quality categories resulted in differences in the VR and VPI outcomes. Fisher’s Exact test was done to determine if there were proportional differences in video quality based on publisher.  We set alpha equal to 0.05 for statistical significance. 

Results: A total of 30 videos were analyzed. The individuals who recorded these videos included 23 physicians, 4 allied health professionals, 1 commercial company, and 2 patients. On average, duration of each video was 14:25. The average time since upload was 40 months. The average DISCERN score was 52 (SD 13). Out of the 30 videos, the DISCERN score showed 8 EQ videos (63-80), 8 GQ (51-62), 9 FQ (39-50), 5 PQ(27-38 points), and no videos were very poor quality (16-26 points).  According to the DISCERN quality labels, videos that were either EQ or GQ (n=16), had an average VR of 373.9 ± 607.2 and an average VPI score of 359.8 ± 595.3. Videos that were either FQ or PQ in quality (n=14), had an average VR of 1588.9 ± 2081.9 and average VPI score of 1550.8 ± 2077.9.  These mean ranking differences were statistically significant for VR and VPI (p= 0.04 and p= 0.03, respectively).  Most videos were published by physicians (77%). Of those videos, 65% were rated as EQ or GQ. Of the videos published by others (n=7), only 1 (14%) was rated as EQ or GQ and this proportional difference was statistically significant (p= 0.03).

Conclusion: Videos that were rated as Fair or Poor in quality tended to be more popular on YT compared to the videos that were rated as EQ or GQ. In addition, physician recorded videos had better quality. Further larger scale studies are required to determine the utility of YT as an educational tool for patients with vasculitis.

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ACR Meeting Abstracts - https://acrabstracts.org/abstract/reliability-of-virtual-sources-of-education-for-patients-with-vasculitis/