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Indo-Asian Information Service
Nov 27, 2018 9:17 pm IST
The researchers warned that the most popular YouTube videos on cancer treatment offer misleading or biased medical information that poses potential risks to the health of patients.
The study, which looks at the 150 most-watched videos on prostate cancer on YouTube, found that 77% had factual errors or biased content in the video or in the comments section.
While 75% of the videos exhaustively describe the benefits of various treatments, only 53% are sufficiently aware of the disadvantages and potential side effects.
Another 19% recommended alternative or complementary therapies that have not been proven.
Image of representation. Reuters
"Our study shows that people really need to be wary of many YouTube videos about prostate cancer," said Stacy Loeb, an badistant professor at the School of Medicine at New York University.
"They contain valuable information, but users need to check the source for credibility and be cautious about the speed with which videos become obsolete, with care guidelines constantly evolving with science." she added.
The study published in European urology The newspaper showed that the audience of these videos was important, with an average total audience of 45,000 people but up to 1.3 million people. More than 600,000 prostate cancer videos are published on the social media platform.
The videos cite a potentially dangerous example in which a video was promoting "injecting herbs" into the prostate to treat cancer, an badertion unsupported by medical evidence, the researchers noted.
In addition, only 50% of the videos badyzed describe "shared decision-making", the current standard of care for screening and treating prostate cancer.
According to the 2017 guidelines of the American Urological Association, men between the ages of 55 and 69 should talk to their doctor about the risks and benefits of a blood test for prostate cancer screening.
However, many popular videos pre-date this change and also encourage more aggressive treatment than that considered medically necessary for low-risk diseases, said Loeb.
She suggested that healthcare providers refer their patients to reliable sources of prostate cancer information and take part in video sharing platforms such as YouTube to produce content that offers information about prostate cancer. factual advice.
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