Lyme Disease and YouTubeTM: A Cross-Sectional Study of Video Contents

• Published in: Osong public health and research perspectives 2017, 8(4), , pp.289-292
• Main Authors: Basch, Corey H., Mullican, Lindsay A., Boone, Kwanza D., Yin, Jingjing, Berdnik, Alyssa, Eremeeva, Marina E., Fung, Isaac Chun-Hai
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Brief Report; 예방의학
• ISSN: 2233-6052; 2210-9099; 2233-6052
• DOI: 10.24171/j.phrp.2017.8.4.10

Objectives: Lyme disease is the most common tick-borne disease. People seek health information on Lyme disease from YouTubeTM videos. In this study, we investigated if the contents of Lyme disease-related YouTubeTM videos varied by their sources. Methods: Most viewed English YouTubeTM videos (n = 100) were identified and manually coded for contents and sources. Results: Within the sample, 40 videos were consumer-generated, 31 were internet-based news, 16 were professional, and 13 were TV news. Compared with consumer-generated videos, TV news videos were more likely to mention celebrities (odds ratio [OR], 10.57; 95% confidence interval [CI], 2.13–52.58), prevention of Lyme disease through wearing protective clothing (OR, 5.63; 95% CI, 1.23–25.76), and spraying insecticides (OR, 7.71; 95% CI, 1.52–39.05). Conclusion: A majority of the most popular Lyme disease-related YouTubeTM videos were not created by public health professionals. Responsible reporting and creative video-making facilitate Lyme disease education. Partnership with YouTubeTM celebrities to co-develop educational videos may be a future direction. KCI Citation Count: 0