YouTube as a resource for Parkinson’s disease exercise education: an evaluation of video quality and reliability

YouTube is a common platform for sharing exercise content related to Parkinson’s disease (PD) and is increasingly used as an informal educational resource for patient education and health professional learning. A cross-sectional, video-based study was conducted between October and November, 2025. Using the keyword ‘Parkinson’s disease exercise’, the first 50 eligible videos were analyzed after minimizing bias. Each video was categorized by source and rated for educational accuracy as “useful,” “misleading,” or “harmful” in the context of exercise education. Viewer metrics (views, duration, likes, comments, subscriber count etc.) were recorded. Educational quality and reliability were assessed using the Modified DISCERN tool, JAMA benchmarks, HONcode, and the Global Quality Scale (GQS). Two researchers independently evaluated videos, with correlation, ICC, and ROC analyses applied to assess consistency. Of the 50 videos, 34 (68%) came from institutional channels, 13 (26%) from health professionals, and 3 (6%) from other sources. Regarding educational accuracy, 29 (58%) videos were classified as useful educational resources, 18 (36%) as misleading but not harmful, and 3 (6%) as potentially harmful for PD exercise education. The mean number of views was 292487.38 ± 672016.99, with an average duration of 19 min. The mean educational quality scores were 2.4 for mDISCERN, 2.3 for JAMA, 2.3 for GQS, and 8.2 for HONcode. ICC showed good-to-excellent agreement (0.771–0.955). ROC analyses indicated that mDISCERN (AUC: 0.843–0.917) and GQS (AUC: 0.759–0.818) effectively distinguished useful videos, while JAMA and HONcode were less discriminative. More than half of the videos were identified as potentially useful educational resources for PD exercise education, particularly those produced by institutional or health professional sources; however, many lacked sufficient evidence-based structure to support effective patient or professional education. mDISCERN and GQS emerged as the most effective tools for evaluating the educational quality of exercise-related video content.