Intoeing gait in children: one of the most common pediatric orthopedic complaints and an evaluation of the quality of related YouTube videos

Intoeing is a common reason for pediatric orthopedic consultations. Families increasingly use YouTube for medical information, but the reliability and quality of this content are unclear, and no previous study has evaluated videos on intoeing. This study assessed the reliability, educational quality, and popularity of YouTube videos on intoeing using validated scoring systems and a novel disease-specific tool. YouTube was searched using the terms 'intoeing', 'pigeon toe', and 'toeing in'. After applying inclusion and exclusion criteria, 48 videos were analyzed. Video characteristics were recorded, and reliability and quality were evaluated using the Journal of the American Medical Association score, Global Quality Score, DISCERN instrument, and the Intoeing Specific Score (ISS) developed for this study. Popularity was measured using the Video Power Index. Interobserver and intraobserver reliability were calculated, and statistical analyses examined associations between scores, video sources, and content. Overall quality was low: 76.4% of videos scored less than or equal to 2 on the Journal of the American Medical Association score, and 54% were rated poor or very poor by DISCERN. According to the ISS, 43.8% were very poor. Academic and physician-generated videos had higher educational quality but lower popularity than nonprofessional sources. Videos from YouTube-verified uploaders scored significantly higher in all quality measures, yet popularity did not correlate with educational quality. YouTube videos on intoeing are generally low quality, revealing a gap between popularity and reliability. Although academic and physician-generated content is more accurate, it is less represented among popular videos. The ISS showed strong reliability and may be useful for future evaluations of disease-specific online content.