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Useful hypertension information common but unpopular on video-sharing websites
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NEW YORK — Video-sharing websites such as YouTube contain useful information relevant to hypertension; however, the useful videos are viewed significantly less frequently than videos that promote misleading information and those related to patients’ personal experiences with hypertension, according to a report presented at the American Society of Hypertension Annual Scientific Meeting.
“Our findings highlight the role clinicians could play in the prescription of accurate medical information to prevent such misinformation among patients with hypertension,” Nilay Kumar, MD, from the department of medicine at Cambridge Health Alliance and Harvard Medical School, told Cardiology Today.
Nilay Kumar
Researchers searched YouTube for videos, using the terms “hypertension” and “high blood pressure.” Their search yielded 209 results in English that were related to systemic hypertension, according to Joint National Committee 7 and American Heart Association guidelines as reference standard benchmarks. The videos were categorized as “useful,” “misleading” or “patient experiences,” and were graded on a 5-point ordinal scale for quality and reliability. Other evaluated factors included the intended audience for the video, the upload source, total number of views and “likes,” and number of views per day.
Across all videos, the total number of views exceeded 5.6 million. Sixty-three percent of videos were considered useful, 33% misleading and 4% related to patients’ personal experiences. Quality and reliability scores were highest among the videos categorized as useful; however, useful videos had the lowest median number of views, daily views and “likes.”
“Our study shows that YouTube contains a large amount of information on hypertension, of which a majority of videos are useful. However, videos which contain misleading information and those that portray patients’ personal experiences in dealing with hypertension seem to be more engaging to viewers, with significantly higher number of views per day and ‘likes,’” Kumar said.
The majority of misleading videos (69.6%) were related to alternative therapies for hypertension, and 51.5% included product advertisement. Commonly referenced alternative treatments included arginine, coenzyme Q10 and garlic.
“The most commonly touted alternative treatment for hypertension on YouTube is arginine, which has been shown to increase the risk of death in individuals with previous heart attacks and is not recommended for the treatment of blood pressure,” Kumar said.
Nearly all (91%) of the misleading videos were targeted at patients. Among the videos classified as useful, 6.8% included information on alternative therapies, and 3.8% contained advertisements.
Factors found to be predictive of usefulness included target audience and upload source, with those provided by universities, professional organizations and health information websites most likely to be categorized as useful. Factors predictive of a higher view count included a target audience of patients and uploading by individual users or health information or test preparation websites.
“Video sharing websites are a cost-effective means of reaching a global audience,” Kumar said. “Authoritative sources such as universities and professional organizations should utilize this medium to disseminate accurate, understandable and patient specific information. Our study suggests that incorporating patient’s personal experiences in videos uploaded by universities and professional societies could make them more engaging for lay viewers.” – by Adam Taliercio
For more information:
Kumar N. Are video-sharing websites a useful source of information on hypertension? Presented at: American Society of Hypertension 2014 Annual Scientific Meeting; May 16-20, 2014; New York.
Disclosure: Kumar reports no relevant financial disclosures.
Cardiology Today maintains a collection of video content related to hypertension and other topics within the cardiology field. Recent videos have included comments from Dominic A. Sica, MD, on the treatment of resistant hypertension, and from John Bisognano, MD, PhD, on improving care delivery for hypertensive patients.