Imperial College London
Alternate

Professor the Lord Darzi of Denham PC KBE FRS FMedSci HonFREng

Faculty of Medicine, Department of Surgery & Cancer

Co-Director of the IGHI, Professor of Surgery
 
 
 
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Contact

 

+44 (0)20 3312 1310a.darzi

 
 
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Location

 

Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother Wing (QEQM)St Mary's Campus

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Summary

 

Publications

Citation

BibTex format

@article{Chidambaram:2022:10.2196/37546,
author = {Chidambaram, S and Maheswaran, Y and Chan, C and Hanna, L and Ashrafian, H and Markar, SR and Sounderajah, V and Alverdy, JC and Darzi, A},
doi = {10.2196/37546},
journal = {JMIR Formative Research},
title = {Misinformation about the human gut microbiome in YouTube videos: cross-sectional study},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/37546},
volume = {6},
year = {2022}
}
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RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Background: Social media platforms such as YouTube are integral tools for disseminating information about health and wellness to the public. However, anecdotal reports have cited that the human gut microbiome has been a particular focus of dubious, misleading, and, on occasion, harmful media content. Despite these claims, there have been no published studies investigating this phenomenon within popular social media platforms.Objective: The aim of this study is to (1) evaluate the accuracy and reliability of the content in YouTube videos related to the human gut microbiome and (2) investigate the correlation between content engagement metrics and video quality, as defined by validated criteria.Methods: In this cross-sectional study, videos about the human gut microbiome were searched for on the United Kingdom version of YouTube on September 20, 2021. The 600 most-viewed videos were extracted and screened for relevance. The contents and characteristics of the videos were extracted and independently rated using the DISCERN quality criteria by 2 researchers.Results: Overall, 319 videos accounting for 62,354,628 views were included. Of the 319 videos, 73.4% (n=234) were produced in North America and 78.7% (n=251) were uploaded between 2019 and 2021. A total of 41.1% (131/319) of videos were produced by nonprofit organizations. Of the videos, 16.3% (52/319) included an advertisement for a product or promoted a health-related intervention for financial purposes. Videos by nonmedical education creators had the highest total and preferred viewership. Daily viewership was the highest for videos by internet media sources. The average DISCERN and Health on the Net Foundation Code of Conduct scores were 49.5 (SE 0.68) out of 80 and 5.05 (SE 2.52) out of 8, respectively. DISCERN scores for videos by medical professionals (mean 53.2, SE 0.17) were significantly higher than for videos by independent content creators (mean 39.1, SE 5.58; P<.001). Videos including promotional mate
AU  - Chidambaram,S
AU  - Maheswaran,Y
AU  - Chan,C
AU  - Hanna,L
AU  - Ashrafian,H
AU  - Markar,SR
AU  - Sounderajah,V
AU  - Alverdy,JC
AU  - Darzi,A
DO  - 10.2196/37546
PY  - 2022///
SN  - 2561-326X
TI  - Misinformation about the human gut microbiome in YouTube videos: cross-sectional study
T2  - JMIR Formative Research
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/37546
UR  - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/97106
VL  - 6
ER  -
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