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YouTube As a Source of Information on the H1N1 Influenza Pandemic

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2009.11.007Get rights and content

Background

The ongoing H1N1 influenza pandemic has created a significant amount of health concern. Adequate dissemination of correct information about H1N1 influenza could help in decreasing the disease spread and associated anxiety in the population.

Purpose

This study aims to examine the effective use of the popular Internet video site YouTube as an information source during the initial phase of the H1N1 outbreak.

Methods

YouTube was searched on June 26, 2009, using the keywords swine flu, H1N1 influenza, and influenza for videos uploaded in the past 3 months containing relevant information about the disease. The videos were classified as useful, misleading, or as news updates based on the kind of information contained. Total viewership, number of days since upload, total duration of videos, and source of upload were noted.

Results

A total of 142 videos had relevant information about H1N1 influenza. In all, 61.3% of videos had useful information about the disease, whereas 23% were misleading. Total viewership share of useful videos was 70.5%, whereas that of misleading videos was 17.5%, with no significant difference in viewership/day. The CDC contributed about 12% of the useful videos, with a significant viewership share of 47%. No significant differences were seen in viewership/day for useful videos based on the kind of information they contained.

Conclusions

YouTube has a substantial amount of useful information about H1N1 influenza. A source-based preference is seen among the viewers, and CDC-uploaded videos are being used in an increasing proportion as a source of authentic information about the disease.

Introduction

The current H1N1 strain (swine flu) outbreak is the first major influenza pandemic in more than 40 years. It started in Mexico in April 2009 and quickly spread across the globe.1 A pandemic of H1N1 influenza was declared by WHO on June 11, 2009.2, 3 Preventive measures for H1N1 include identifying, treating, and isolating diseased people and educating the public about the disease. Dissemination of correct information is important to encourage people to be compliant with the preventive guidelines and practice-specific behaviors for preventing disease spread.4, 5

The Internet has become an easily available source of healthcare information.6 Freely available video broadcast sites such as YouTube are popular sources of information, with more than 100 million viewers every day.7 Considering its popularity and easy accessibility, YouTube should be regarded as an important platform for sharing relevant healthcare information. However, there is a risk of dissemination of misleading information. YouTube has been evaluated in the past as a source of information on vaccination, tobacco use, and breastfeeding.8, 9, 10, 11 Use of YouTube as a source of information in influenza outbreaks has not been evaluated. In this study, an analysis is presented of the use of YouTube by health organizations, independent users, and news agencies to disseminate information during the H1NI outbreak from April to June 2009.

Section snippets

Methods

YouTube (www.youtube.com) was searched using the keywords swine flu, H1N1 influenza, and influenza on June 26, 2009, for videos containing pertinent information about the disease uploaded over the past 3 months. English videos that contained information about H1N1 influenza were included. Videos that were duplicated (in part or as a whole) were not included in the study. All the videos meeting the inclusion criteria were saved. They were viewed and analyzed for content by two independent

Results

A total of 344 videos were screened, and 142 were found to have relevant information about H1N1 influenza (total duration of 569 minutes). The kappa coefficient of agreement regarding classification of these videos was 0.97. The classification of videos according to their usefulness, with details of other characteristics, is given in Table 1. Mean duration of the videos was 4.01 minutes (SD=3.48, range=0.5–13.48), with no significant difference between the durations of useful and misleading

Discussion

On the date of this assessment (June 26, 2009), YouTube had approximately 9.5 hours of coverage of H1N1, of which 61.5% was useful information. No differences were found in average viewership/day of misleading versus useful videos. Similar trends have been observed in the past during evaluations of the role of YouTube as a source of information about immunization.8, 9

The CDC videos had the maximum share of viewership, possibly because the CDC is considered a more reliable and authentic source

Conclusion

Considering the growing popularity of YouTube, this channel of communication should be added to other media forms as a platform for health communication that is worthy of the attention of health professionals. YouTube can be considered an important educative tool that could play a significant role in the event of global disease outbreaks.

References (11)

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Copyright © 2010 American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.