Am J Perinatol 2021; 38(02): 140-144
DOI: 10.1055/s-0039-1694786
Original Article

YouTube as a Source of Patient Information for Prenatal Repair of Myelomeningocele

Jayme Castillo*
1   Department of Undergraduate Medical Education, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas
,
Christina Wassef*
1   Department of Undergraduate Medical Education, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas
,
Audrey Wassef
1   Department of Undergraduate Medical Education, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas
,
Katie Stormes
1   Department of Undergraduate Medical Education, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas
,
Anna E. Berry
1   Department of Undergraduate Medical Education, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas
› Author Affiliations
Funding None.

Abstract

Objective With the increasing interest in fetal repair of myelomeningoceles (MMCs) over the last decade, it is reasonable to anticipate the need for high quality and accessible educational materials for patients. Patients often look to the internet for details regarding medical topics and specifically to YouTube for informative health-related videos. This study aims to analyze the content and shortcomings of currently available videos on YouTube regarding prenatal repair of MMCs.

Study Design A YouTube search was performed on December 15, 2018, using the terms “fetoscopic surgery for neural tube defect” and “fetal surgery for neural tube defect.” The first 50 videos from each search were sorted by relevance and evaluated for video source (i.e., professional, personal, or other), target audience (medical professionals or general public), general descriptive statistics (i.e., video length, number of views, number of comments), and for five areas of content determined by the authors to constitute basic patient information regarding a surgical procedure: (1) procedure details, (2) eligibility criteria, (3) alternatives to surgery, (4) surgical risks, and (5) success rate. Accuracy of videos was not assessed.

Results Of the 16 videos that met inclusion criteria, only 1 discussed fetoscopic surgery. The majority (62.5%) of videos were produced by a professional source and 81.3% were targeted toward the general public rather than medical professionals. Of the 16 videos, 10 (62.5%) included details regarding the surgery, 3 (18.8%) discussed eligibility criteria, and 8 (50.0%) mentioned alternatives to surgery. Additionally, seven videos (43.8%) discussed risks of the procedure and six (37.5%) included surgical success rate.

Conclusion Only 2 of the 16 videos included all five areas of content that were evaluated, and both were in regard to open fetal repair. This study not only calls attention to the initial shortcomings of YouTube videos regarding fetal surgery for neural tube defects but also demonstrates the need for further investigation and more comprehensive analysis.

Note

The study data have been accepted for future poster presentation at Gynecology Houston 2019.


* These authors contributed equally to this work. J.C. was responsible for article preparation and C.W. was responsible for study design and analysis.




Publication History

Received: 02 May 2019

Accepted: 06 July 2019

Article published online:
20 August 2019

© 2019. Thieme. All rights reserved.

Thieme Medical Publishers, Inc.
333 Seventh Avenue, 18th Floor, New York, NY 10001, USA

 
  • References

  • 1 Boulet SL, Yang Q, Mai C. et al; National Birth Defects Prevention Network. Trends in the postfortification prevalence of spina bifida and anencephaly in the United States. Birth Defects Res A Clin Mol Teratol 2008; 82 (07) 527-532
  • 2 Oaks W, Gaskill S. Symptomatic Chiari malformations in childhood. Spinal Dysraphism. 1992 . Accessed April 13, 2019 at: https://ci.nii.ac.jp/naid/10016939363/
  • 3 Niforatos N, du Plessis AJ. Fetal surgery for neural tube defects. Arch Dis Child Fetal Neonatal Ed 2013; 98 (03) F276-F278
  • 4 Greene ND, Copp AJ. Neural tube defects. Annu Rev Neurosci 2014; 37: 221-242
  • 5 Adzick NS. Fetal surgery for spina bifida: past, present, future. Semin Pediatr Surg 2013; 22 (01) 10-17
  • 6 Adzick NS, Thom EA, Spong CY. et al; MOMS Investigators. A randomized trial of prenatal versus postnatal repair of myelomeningocele. N Engl J Med 2011; 364 (11) 993-1004
  • 7 Farmer DL, von Koch CS, Peacock WJ. et al. In utero repair of myelomeningocele: experimental pathophysiology, initial clinical experience, and outcomes. Arch Surg 2003; 138 (08) 872-878
  • 8 Belfort MA. Minimally Invasive Fetal Neural Tube Defect Repair Study. NLM identifier: NCT02230072. Accessed June 22, 2019 at: https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02230072
  • 9 John Hopkins University. Study of Fetoscopic Repair of Myelomeningocele in Fetuses with Isolated Spina Bifida. NLM identifier: NCT03090633. Accessed June 22, 2019 at: https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03090633
  • 10 Fox S. The Social Life of Health Information, 2011|Pew Research Center. Accessed April 13, 2019 at: https://www.pewinternet.org/2011/05/12/the-social-life-of-health-information-2011/
  • 11 Fox S, Duggan M. Information Triage|Pew Research Center. Accessed June 22, 2019 at: https://www.pewinternet.org/2013/01/15/information-triage/
  • 12 YouTube Statistics. Accessed June 22, 2019 at: https://www.youtube.com/yt/about/press/
  • 13 Drozd B, Couvillon E, Suarez A. Medical YouTube videos and methods of evaluation: literature review. JMIR Med Educ 2018; 4 (01) e3
  • 14 Nason K, Donnelly A, Duncan HF. YouTube as a patient-information source for root canal treatment. Int Endod J 2016; 49 (12) 1194-1200
  • 15 Özdal Zincir Ö, Bozkurt AP, Gaş S. Potential patient education of YouTube videos related to wisdom tooth surgical removed. J Craniofac Surg 2019; 30 (05) e481-e484
  • 16 Sahin AN, Sahin AS, Schwenter F, Sebajang H. YouTube videos as a source of information on colorectal cancer: what do our patients learn?. J Canc Educ 2018; 1-7
  • 17 Bae SS, Baxter S. YouTube videos in the English language as a patient education resource for cataract surgery. Int Ophthalmol 2018; 38 (05) 1941-1945
  • 18 Lee JS, Seo HS, Hong TH. YouTube as a source of patient information on gallstone disease. World J Gastroenterol 2014; 20 (14) 4066-4070
  • 19 Chandrasekaran N, Gressick K, Singh V. et al. The utility of social media in providing information on Zika virus. Cureus 2017; 9 (10) e1792
  • 20 Wong M, Desai B, Bautista M, Kwon O, Kolodychuk N, Chimento G. YouTube is a poor source of patient information for knee arthroplasty and knee osteoarthritis. Arthroplast Today 2018; 5 (01) 78-82
  • 21 Koller U, Waldstein W, Schatz K-D, Windhager R. YouTube provides irrelevant information for the diagnosis and treatment of hip arthritis. Int Orthop 2016; 40 (10) 1995-2002
  • 22 Erdem H, Sisik A. The reliability of bariatric surgery videos in YouTube platform. Obes Surg 2018; 28 (03) 712-716
  • 23 Belfort MA, Whitehead WE, Shamshirsaz AA. et al. Fetoscopic open neural tube defect repair: development and refinement of a two-port, carbon dioxide insufflation technique. Obstet Gynecol 2017; 129 (04) 734-743