Quality of YouTube videos on prostate cancer screening for black men

Abstract

Background: Black men are disproportionately impacted by prostate cancer. Guidelines agree that Black men should make informed decisions about whether to engage in prostate cancer screening. YouTube is widely used among Black men and impacts understanding of health conditions. Objectives: Given that misleading online health information might be especially harmful to Black men, the objective of this study was to evaluate the quality of information regarding prostate cancer screening for Black men available on YouTube. Methods: Four viewers watched the top 50 videos using the search term “Prostate Cancer Screening in Black Men.” Videos were scored using the previously validated DISCERN quality criteria for consumer health information and the Patient Education Materials Assessment Tool (PEMAT). Results were compared based on video characteristics like presenter perceived demographics and viewer engagement metrics. Results: Inter-rater reliability testing showed consistency for the PEMAT (interclass correlation coefficient [ICC] = 0.69) and DISCERN (ICC= 0.85). Few videos (16%) met the DISCERN quality threshold (54.4/80), and 28% of videos met the PEMAT threshold (10.5/15). Less than half of videos addressed racial disparities in prostate cancer. There was no difference in quality based on perceived race of the presenter (DISCERN P = .06, PEMAT P = .43). Conclusions: The overall quality of videos about prostate cancer screening in Black men is poor, including those with Black presenters. Clinicians should be aware of potential misinformation that Black patients receive from YouTube and the opportunity to improve the quality of available information about prostate cancer screening in Black men. (J Am Board Fam Med 2021;34:724–731.)