JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Nearly 70% of Americans use the internet as their first source of information for health-related questions. Contemporary data on watching online videos containing health information among US adults by urbanicity/rurality is currently unavailable and its link with health topic awareness (such as HPV, human papillomavirus) is not known.

Objective:

1. To describe trends and patterns in the consumption of health-related videos on social media from urban-rural context, 2. To examine the association between exposure to health-related videos and health-topic (i.e., HPV) awareness, and 3. To understand public interest in HPV-related video content

Methods:

The Health Information National Trends Survey 6 was examined to estimate the prevalence of watching health-related videos online and its relationship with HPV topic awareness. Responses to watching health videos on social media and HPV awareness among urban and rural participants were analyzed using bivariate analyses and multivariate logistic regression models. In addition, public interest in HPV-specific video content was captured through search volumes (quantitative) and related query searches (qualitative) using YouTube® data (the world’s largest video-sharing platform).

Results:

In 2022, 59·6% of US adults (152·3 million) watched health-related videos on social media, an increase of nearly 100% from 2017 to 2022. The proportion of urban and rural adults who watched health videos on social media were 59·8% and 58·0%, respectively. Consumption of health-related videos on social media was most prevalent among 18-40 years old and college graduates or higher-educated urban and rural adults. In both urban and rural groups, awareness of HPV and HPV vaccine was significantly higher among adults who watched health-related videos on social media compared to those who did not watch health videos. Individuals were most commonly searching for videos that covered content about the HPV vaccine, HPV in males, and side effects of the HPV vaccine on YouTube®.

Conclusions:

Nearly 60% of urban and rural US adults watch health-related videos on social media websites. Watching a health-related video online was associated with a greater probability of being aware of HPV. Additional research on designing and developing video content is needed for improving health topic awareness.