Doctor YouTube's opinion on seasonal influenza: A critical appraisal of the information available to patients

Are dental x-rays safe? Content analysis of English and Chinese YouTube videos

Objective

This study provided a content analysis of English and Chinese YouTube videos related to dental radiation safety.

Method

The search string, entered in English and Chinese respectively, was: (dental x-ray safe). The searches were performed and exported with Apify YouTube scraper. By screening the resultant videos and their related videos (as recommended by YouTube), a total of 89 videos were screened. Finally, 45 videos (36 English and nine Chinese) were included and analyzed. The specific information regarding dental radiation was evaluated. The Patient Education Material Assessment Tool for Audiovisual Materials was used to assess understandability and actionability.

Results

There was no significant difference between the English and Chinese videos in terms of view count, like count, comment count, and video duration. Half of the videos explicitly reassured the audience that dental x-rays are safe. Two of the English videos specifically stated that dental x-rays do not cause cancers. Numerous analogies were made in regard to radiation dose, such as equivalence to taking a flight or eating some bananas. About 41.7% of the English videos and 33.3% of the Chinese videos mentioned that patients could be further protected from scatter radiation by wearing a lead apron and thyroid collar. Videos had a good understandability score (91.3) but a poor actionability score (0).

Conclusions

Some of the analogies and the claimed radiation dose were questionable. One Chinese video even wrongly stated that dental x-rays are nonionizing radiation. The videos generally did not mention their information sources or the underlying radiation protection principles.

Information in Spanish on YouTube about Covid-19 vaccines

Our objective was to analyze the sources, characteristics, tone, and content of the most viewed YouTube videos in Spanish about Covid-19 vaccines. In February 2021, a search was carried out on YouTube using the terms "Vacuna Covid," "Vacuna coronavirus," and "Vacuna Covid19." Associations between tone, source, and others variables (e.g. number of views or dislikes) were studied with a Mann-Whitney U-test and a chi-square test. A total of 118 videos were analyzed; 63.6% were originated from Mexico and the USA; media created 57.6% of the videos. Positive tone was observed in 53.4%. The most discussed topics were target groups for vaccination (38.9%) and safety (43.2%). The 68 videos produced by media accumulated 31,565,295 views (55.0% of views), and the 19 videos created by health professionals obtained 10,742,825 views (18.7% of views). A significantly smaller number of likes was obtained in videos of media compared to those created by health professionals (p = .004). Videos made by health professionals, compared to those of media, showed a greater positive tone (OR = 3.09). Hoaxes/conspiracy theories were identified in 1.7% of the videos. Monitoring that the information on YouTube about Covid-19 vaccines is reliable should be a central part of Covid-19 vaccination campaigns.

One Digital Health: A Unified Framework for Future Health Ecosystems

One Digital Health is a proposed unified structure. The conceptual framework of the One Digital Health Steering Wheel is built around two keys (ie, One Health and digital health), three perspectives (ie, individual health and well-being, population and society, and ecosystem), and five dimensions (ie, citizens’ engagement, education, environment, human and veterinary health care, and Healthcare Industry 4.0). One Digital Health aims to digitally transform future health ecosystems, by implementing a systemic health and life sciences approach that takes into account broad digital technology perspectives on human health, animal health, and the management of the surrounding environment. This approach allows for the examination of how future generations of health informaticians can address the intrinsic complexity of novel health and care scenarios in digitally transformed health ecosystems. In the emerging hybrid landscape, citizens and their health data have been called to play a central role in the management of individual-level and population-level perspective data. The main challenges of One Digital Health include facilitating and improving interactions between One Health and digital health communities, to allow for efficient interactions and the delivery of near–real-time, data-driven contributions in systems medicine and systems ecology. However, digital health literacy; the capacity to understand and engage in health prevention activities; self-management; and collaboration in the prevention, control, and alleviation of potential problems are necessary in systemic, ecosystem-driven public health and data science research. Therefore, people in a healthy One Digital Health ecosystem must use an active and forceful approach to prevent and manage health crises and disasters, such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

YouTube as a Source of Influenza Vaccine Information in Spanish

Our objective was to analyze the information in Spanish on YouTube about the influenza vaccine. In August 2020, a search was conducted on YouTube using the terms “Vacuna gripe”, “Vacuna influenza”, and “Vacuna gripa”. Associations between the type of authorship, country of publication, and other variables (such as tone, hoaxes, and vaccination recommendations) were studied via univariate analysis. A total of 100 videos were evaluated; 57.0% were created in Mexico (24.0%), Argentina (17.0%), and Spain (16.0%), and 74.0% were produced by mass media or health professionals. Positive messages were detected in 65.0%. The main topics were the benefits of the vaccine (59.0%) and adverse effects (39.0%). Hoaxes were detected in 19 videos. User-generated content, compared to that of health professionals, showed a higher probability of hoaxes (odds ratio (OR) = 15.56), a lower positive tone (OR = 0.04), and less evidence of recommendations to vaccinate pregnant individuals (OR = 0.09) and people aged 60/65 or older. Videos published in Spain, in comparison with those from Hispanic America, presented significant differences in the positive tone of their messages (OR = 0.19) and in the evidence of the benefits of vaccination (OR = 0.32). A higher probability of hoaxes was detected in videos from Spain and the USA. Information in Spanish about the influenza vaccine on YouTube is usually not very complete. Spanish health professionals are urged to produce pro-vaccination videos that counteract hoaxes, and users in Hispanic America should be advised to consult videos produced in Hispanic American countries by health professionals to obtain reliable information.