Evaluation of the quality of phantom limb pain information on YouTube

Background: Patients more frequently seek health-related information from online sources, including YouTube. Phantom limb pain (PLP) is a complex problem, with evolving research into its pathophysiology and management. As healthcare professionals, it is important to be aware of the quality of publicly accessible information. This study aimed to investigate the reliability and quality of YouTube videos about PLP. Methods: 50 videos were identified from YouTube using the search term ‘pain after amputation’. Sources and video parameters were documented. Two assessors examined the videos independently using five scoring systems including the Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA) Benchmark criteria, the Global Quality Score (GQS), a Subjective score, and the Patient Education Materials Assessment Tool for Audio-Visual Materials (PEMAT-A/V). At the time of video identification, the assessors included one final year medical student with an interest in anaesthetics and one anaesthetic speciality trainee doctor. Results: Our study indicates that the overall quality and reliability of YouTube videos covering PLP is poor, with mean JAMA, GQS, Subjective, PEMAT-A/V Understandability, and PEMAT-A/V Actionability scores of 2.07 (minimum and maximum scores of 0 and 4), 2.66 (minimum and maximum scores of 1 and 5), 3.76 (minimum and maximum scores of 0 and 10), 16.67% (minimum and maximum scores of 0% and 100%) and 40.88% (minimum and maximum scores of 0% and 100%) respectively, demonstrating the inadequacy of currently available online information. The percentage range of videos that were deemed high quality was 9–26%. We also found that videos that patients access more readily (calculated using an interaction index) are not necessarily of a higher quality, and that the publisher (ie, the professional, patient, independent academic or company who uploaded the video) of the content has no significant effect on the quality of the video (p=0.704, p=0.580, p=0.086, p=0.432, p=0.364). Conclusions: Online audiovisual PLP-related information is of poor quality. When patients are searching for information online they are more likely to be directed to content that is inadequate and of poor quality. Clinicians should be aware of the quality of information that is available to patients. Higher quality videos are essential to aid patient understanding of PLP.