Consumption of Health-Related Videos and Human Papillomavirus Awareness: Cross-Sectional Analyses of a US National Survey and YouTube From the Urban-Rural Context

• Published in: Journal of medical Internet research 2024-01, Vol.26 (18), p.e49749
• Main Authors: Garg, Ashvita, Nyitray, Alan G, Roberts, James R, Shungu, Nicholas, Ruggiero, Kenneth J, Chandler, Jessica, Damgacioglu, Haluk, Zhu, Yenan, Brownstein, Naomi C, Sterba, Katherine R, Deshmukh, Ashish A, Sonawane, Kalyani
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adults; Application programming interface; Cancer; College graduates; Consumption; Health information; Hispanic people; Human papillomavirus; Internet; Internet access; Internet videos; Males; Medical research; Medicine, Experimental; Original Paper; Papillomavirus infections; Papillomaviruses; Perceptions; Polls & surveys; Public interest; Queries; Rural areas; Side effects; Social media; Social networks; Sociodemographics; Topics; Trends; Vaccines; Variables
• ISSN: 1438-8871; 1439-4456; 1438-8871
• DOI: 10.2196/49749

Nearly 70% of Americans use the internet as their first source of information for health-related questions. Contemporary data on the consumption of web-based videos containing health information among American adults by urbanity or rurality is currently unavailable, and its link with health topic awareness, particularly for human papillomavirus (HPV), is not known. We aim to describe trends and patterns in the consumption of health-related videos on social media from an urban-rural context, examine the association between exposure to health-related videos on social media and awareness of health topics (ie, HPV and HPV vaccine), and understand public interest in HPV-related video content through search terms and engagement analytics. We conducted a cross-sectional analysis of the US Health Information National Trends Survey 6, a nationally representative survey that collects data from civilian, noninstitutionalized adults aged 18 years or older residing in the United States. Bivariable analyses were used to estimate the prevalence of consumption of health-related videos on social media among US adults overall and by urbanity or rurality. Multivariable logistic regression models were used to examine the association between the consumption of health-related videos and HPV awareness among urban and rural adults. To provide additional context on the public's interest in HPV-specific video content, we examined search volumes (quantitative) and related query searches (qualitative) for the terms "HPV" and "HPV vaccine" on YouTube. In 2022, 59.6% of US adults (152.3 million) consumed health-related videos on social media, an increase of nearly 100% from 2017 to 2022. Prevalence increased among adults living in both urban (from 31.4% in 2017 to 59.8% in 2022; P