Abstract
Purpose: With cancer as the leading cause of mortality in Canada, patients often turn to the internet for health information. However, few studies have evaluated the quality of these resources. The aim of this study is to describe and evaluate the current landscape of YouTube videos available to patients on cervical cancer brachytherapy.
Materials & methods: Using a clear-cache Chrome browser in incognito mode, YouTube was searched using “cervical cancer brachytherapy”, “cervical cancer radiation brachytherapy”, and “cervical cancer brachytherapy treatment” on January 30, 2023. Videos were sorted by relevance and the first 50 videos from each was collected. Videos were excluded if they were not accessible (i.e., scheduled for future release), behind a paywall, not in English (either audio or in-video subtext), or >1 hour in duration. Duplicates were removed. Videos were aggregately ranked and evaluated for general parameters, source information, and content. Two coders evaluated the first 10 videos to ensure consistency. Descriptive analyses were carried out.
Results: Of 150, 47 unique videos were included in the analysis. Videos were published between November 2, 2009 and January 27, 2023, with 53.2% of videos published within the past 3 years as of February 2023. Median length was 4 minutes 42 seconds. Median view, like, and comment counts were 8150, 43, and 3, respectively. Over half of videos (55.3%) were published from the USA. Videos were most commonly published by a healthcare facility/organization (36.2%), or else a commercial (21.3%) or personal (17.0%) account. Most videos were presented by a physician (53.2%), unknown (27.7%), or patient (19.1%), often as an interview (42.6%). Videos largely targeted patients (66.0%) compared to healthcare professionals/students (34.0%). Around half generally discussed the spectrum of treatments for cervical cancer including surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy (53.2%), as well as described brachytherapy (48.9%) and its use in treating cervical cancer (46.8%). Commonly, videos discussed logistics of brachytherapy treatments (36.2%), treatment applicators (34.0%), and brachytherapy advantages and disadvantages (27.7% each). Few explained the procedure (19.1%) or described side effects (12.8%). Only 12.8% was an advertisement and 4.3% contained grossly misleading/inaccurate information.
Conclusions: Here we present an overview of the videos available to patients on cervical cancer brachytherapy. Videos generally presented a balanced overview of the treatments for cervical cancer, including brachytherapy. However, few videos included pertinent patient-relevant information such as side effects. This may inform physicians of the limitations of online videos and guide the development of additional patient educational resources. Further research should appraise other online resources for cervical cancer radiation therapy.
