Bad Ideas: Getting Ones Health Information from YouTube

As if it needs to be said, the vast majority of "information" on the internet is nothing but misinformation. This cannot be more dangerous than in the realm of health related information.

A recent study, published in the journal Nutrition, aimed to evaluate the scientific reliability and the relationship between the quality and popularity of the most watched YouTube videos on cancer and nutrition.

Evaluation of scientific reliability and quality of YouTube videos on cancer and nutrition

The study authors evaluated YouTube videos related to the topics of cancer and nutrition and the quality of each video was evaluated according to the internationally valid medical video or document evaluation scores: DISCERN score, modified DISCERN score, Journal of the American Medical Association score, and Global Quality Scale score.

When the video quality was evaluated according to the DISCERN score, it was discovered that only 21% of the videos evaluated were determined to be good or excellent. Probably the most interesting finding from this study was that the most watched videos turned out to the the ones presenting the least level of reliability.

TAKE HOME: Do your homework people and don't be duped by supposed "accurate" information found on YouTube, or other social media sites for that matter.