Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Infodemiology
Date Submitted: Jul 30, 2024
Date Accepted: Jun 4, 2025
The Quality and Reliability of Online Videos as an Information Source of Public Health Education for Stroke Prevention in China Mainland: An Electronic Media-Based Cross-Sectional Study
ABSTRACT
Background:
Stroke has become a leading cause of death and disability worldwide, causing tremendous healthy life losses and economic burden to patients and their family caregivers. However, as an emerging source of information, the specific credibility and quality of online videos concerning stroke prevention education, especially those in Chinese language, remained unclear.
Objective:
Our study aimed to describe the basic characteristics and the overall quality and reliability of Chinese language online videos concerning public health education for stroke prevention.
Methods:
Our research team systematically searched and screened stroke prevention-related online video resources on four popular Chinese domestic video websites (BiliBili, Douyin, Haokan, and Xigua). Subsequently, their general information, including upload date, duration, views, likes, comments, and shares, were extracted and collected. We mainly utilized two instruments, the modified DISCERN questionnaire and Global Quality Scale (GQS) tool, to evaluate the overall reliability and quality of our included videos, respectively. At last, the Spearman correlation coefficient was employed to assess the potential correlation of video general information with video quality and reliability.
Results:
After searching and screening, a total of 313 eligible videos, among which 68 from BiliBili, 74 from Douyin, 86 from Haokan, and 85 from Xigua, were included to further analysis. Among them, approximately 36.1% of total included videos were created by healthcare professionals, followed by news agencies (30.3%) and general individual users (12.7%). The medians of modified DISCERN and GQS scores were 2 and 3, respectively, suggesting the included stroke prevention-related videos were relatively unreliable and of moderate quality. For stroke prevention recommendations, the vast majority of included videos were focused upon primary stroke prevention typified as adopting healthy diet, physical activity, and reduce blood pressure, glucose, and lipid. Finally, videos with greater duration and received more comments tended to be more reliable and high-quality, and meanwhile positive association was also observed between video quality and reliability.
Conclusions:
Overall, the effectiveness of Chinese language online videos acting as a stroke prevention-related information source remained unsatisfactory, which needs to be treated with cautions by their audiences. As a result, more sound solutions, including construction of an online monitor and correction system, reinforcement of video review process through collaboration with physicians, and encouragement of more selective and cautious sharing regarding controversial videos on the internet, should be further employed to constrains the spread of online misinformation and minimized its continued influence effect. Clinical Trial: N/A
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