JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

With the global increase of caesarean deliveries, breech presentation is the third indication for elective caesarean delivery. Implementation of ECV to prevent breech presentation at term is still suboptimal. Increasing knowledge for caretakers and patients is beneficial in the uptake of the implementation. In the last decades, the internet is the most important source of information for both patients and healthcare professionals. However, the use and availability of the internet brings concerns as well, since it is often not regulated nor reviewed. Information needs to be understandable, correct and easily obtainable for the patient, and for the latter YouTube has great potential. Because of its global reach, YouTube has a high potential to both hinder and support spreading medical information and can therefore be used as a tool for shared decision making.

Objective:

The objective of this study was to investigate the available information on YouTube about External Cephalic Version (ECV) and assess the quality and usefulness.

Methods:

A YouTube search was performed with five search terms, selecting the first 35 results. A quality assessment scale was developed to quantify the accuracy of medical information of each video. Main outcome measure was usefulness score. The videos ware divided into useful, slightly useful and not useful. Source of upload was divided into five subcategories, and medical or non-medical. Secondary outcomes included: audience engagement, misinformation and encouraging or discouraging ECV.

Results:

70 videos were analyzed, only 14.3% was defined as useful. Every useful video was uploaded by educational channels or health care professionals, and 80% was from a medical source. Over half of the not useful videos were uploaded by childbirth attendants and vloggers. Childbirth attendants scored highest on audience engagement. The presence of misinformation was low throughout all groups. Two thirds of the vloggers encouraged ECV to their viewers.

Conclusions:

A minor percentage of videos on ECV on YouTube is considered useful. Vloggers often encouraged their audience to opt for ECV. Groups with a higher audience engagement, had a lower usefulness score compared to the groups with a lower audience engagement but a higher usefulness score. Sources from medically accurate videos should cooperate with sources with a high audience engagement to contribute to the uptake of ECV by creating more awareness and a positive attitude and thereby lowering the chance for a caesarean delivery because of term breech. Clinical Trial: -