The following is a summary of “Misinformation Persists in Complementary Health: Evaluating the Reliability and Quality of YouTube-Based Information on the Use of Acupuncture for Chronic Pain,” published in the April 2024 issue of Pain by Greer et al.
While acupuncture is a popular choice for chronic pain relief, many turn to social media for information before seeking treatment.
Researchers conducted a retrospective study to evaluate YouTube information on acupuncture for chronic pain management’s usefulness, accuracy, and quality.
They utilized search terms like “acupuncture for chronic pain” and “acupuncture pain relief” to identify the top 54 videos based on view count. The included videos were over 1 minute long, had English audio, garnered over 7,000 views, and were relevant to acupuncture. They assessed each video’s utility as useful, misleading, or neutral. The quality and reliability of each video were evaluated using established tools such as the modified DISCERN (mDISCERN) tool and the Global Quality Scale (GQS). Mean values were calculated for video production characteristics, sources, mDISCERN, and GQS scores. Statistical analyses involved comparing continuous outcomes with the Student’s t-test and categorical outcomes with the chi-square test.
The results showed that out of 54 videos, 57.4% were deemed valid, 14.8% misleading, and 27.8% neither. Helpful videos had a mean GQS and Modified DISCERN score of 3.77± 0.67 and 3.48± 0.63, respectively, while misleading videos had mean GQS and Modified DISCERN scores of 2.50± 0.53 and 2.38± 0.52, respectively. Among the valuable videos, 41.8% were produced by a healthcare institution, whereas none of the misleading videos were. However, 87.5% of the misleading videos were produced by health media, compared to 25.8% of valuable videos.
Investigators concluded that YouTube content on acupuncture for chronic pain, while increasingly sought after by patients, often lacked quality and reliable information.
