Fibromyalgia in social media: content and quality of the information analysis of videos on the YouTube platform

ABSTRACT

To evaluate the fibromyalgia (FM) content in YouTube videos and verify if American College of Rheumatology (ACR) guidelines are being met. The videos were searched with the keyword “Fibromyalgia.” Two independent researchers evaluated and coded specific characteristics of the videos. The popularity of the videos, the presentation properties, and content related to FM according to the ACR criteria were analyzed. Of the 200 videos included, the majority were presented by health professionals, 61.5%. Most videos covered more than one subject, 38.5%. The videos presented by health professionals were the most viewed. Following the ACR guidelines, 38% defined FM, 24% described the etiology, 19.5% described the diagnostic criteria and 52% presented recommended management strategies. The results indicate that users mainly watch videos published by health professionals. Most of the published videos do not follow the information recommended by the ACR guidelines. Therefore, videos should be interpreted with caution, not being the most appropriate resource for health education for patients with FM. Most of the videos published on YouTube about FM do not meet the ACR guidelines for FM.

KEYWORDS:

• Health education
• youtube
• videos
• content analysis

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed on the publisher’s website.

Additional information

Funding

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior, Brasil (CAPES; Finance Code 001), Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa de Minas Gerais (FAPEMIG) and the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq).