YouTube as a source of education on piriformis injection: a content, quality, and reliability analysis.
Background: Piriformis injection is commonly used to diagnose and relieve piriformis syndrome.YouTube has become a frequently accessed platform for healthcare professionals seeking procedural information.However, the lack of studies on the quality and reliability of medical content on YouTube raises major concerns, suggesting that the platform cannot be trusted as a source of medical information, particularly in terms of reliability and content quality.This study aims to assess the educational value and quality of YouTube videos on piriformis injections and is the first to specifically evaluate these aspects.
Methods: A keyword search for "piriformis injection" was conducted on YouTube in December 2024, ensuring search history was cleared before the review.The top 100 videos were screened, and data including subscriber count, views, likes, dislikes, comments, video duration, upload date, like ratio, view ratio, video power index, injection guidance method, and video source were collected. Two pain medicine specialists independently evaluated the videos using the modified DISCERN, JAMA benchmark criteria, and Global Quality Scale (GQS) to assess reliability and quality.
Results: Of the 100 screened videos, 24 met the inclusion criteria for analysis. Notably, none of the videos attained maximum scores across all three evaluation criteria. According to the modified DISCERN score, 58% of the videos had low reliability, while 50% had low quality according to the GQS score. Video scores were consistent across different sources. Positive correlations were observed between the number of views, likes, dislikes, and comments. Additionally, strong correlations were identified between GQS, DISCERN, and JAMA scores.
Conclusions: The educational value of YouTube videos cannot be evaluated based on a single factor, such as the source of the video or its popularity metrics. Relying on YouTube as the sole source can likely lead to misinformation, so cross-verifying the information in these videos is vital. While YouTube can be a supplementary resource, it should not replace primary educational materials. Therefore, healthcare professionals and organizations should be encouraged to produce high-quality, peer-reviewed educational content to ensure the quality of information available on such platforms.