Currently submitted to: JMIR Infodemiology
Date Submitted: Sep 27, 2026
Open Peer Review Period: Oct 1, 2026 - Nov 26, 2026
(currently open for review)
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Quality, Reliability, and Comprehensiveness of Turkish- and English-Language YouTube Videos on Incretin-Based Therapies: Cross-Sectional Content Analysis
ABSTRACT
Background:
The rapidly expanding use of incretin-based therapies, including glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists and dual glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide/GLP-1 receptor agonists such as tirzepatide, has substantially increased public demand for reliable online health information. Because patients increasingly rely on YouTube before and during treatment, the quality of this information has become directly relevant to patient education and clinical practice.
Objective:
This study aimed to evaluate the quality, reliability, and comprehensiveness of Turkish- and English-language YouTube videos on incretin-based therapies and to identify independent predictors of high-quality educational content.
Methods:
In this cross-sectional content analysis, 100 Turkish-language and 77 English-language videos identified in April 2026 were independently rated by 2 reviewers using the Modified DISCERN instrument, the Global Quality Scale (GQS), and a 6-item Comprehensiveness Score, and were classified as informative or misleading. Multivariable logistic regression was used to identify independent predictors of high-quality videos (Modified DISCERN score ≥4) in each dataset.
Results:
English-language videos showed significantly higher quality than Turkish-language videos. Informative videos comprised 89.6% (69/77) of English-language versus 58.0% (58/100) of Turkish-language videos, and misleading content 10.4% (8/77) versus 42.0% (42/100; P<.001). English-language videos achieved higher median Modified DISCERN (4 vs 2) and GQS (4 vs 3) scores. Median Comprehensiveness Scores were 4 in both datasets; long-term treatment management (35/100, 35.0%) and mechanism of action (42/100, 42.0%) were the least covered domains in Turkish-language videos. In the Turkish-language dataset, videos produced by physicians (odds ratio [OR] 29.25, 95% CI 6.17-138.74) and by other health care professionals (OR 62.42, 95% CI 10.19-382.19) independently predicted high quality (both P<.001). Longer duration predicted higher quality in both datasets, whereas view count did not.
Conclusions:
The quality of YouTube information on incretin-based therapies differed markedly between languages and, in Turkish-language content, depended strongly on who produced it, while popularity metrics did not signal quality. Increasing health care professional engagement in digital health communication may improve the quality of online educational resources and support evidence-based patient counseling and shared decision-making regarding incretin-based therapies.
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