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The most popular YouTube videos on prostate cancer often offer misleading or biased medical information that poses potential risks to the health of patients, according to an badysis of the social media platform.
Led by researchers at the NYU School of Medicine and the Perlmutter Cancer Center, the study of the 150 most-watched YouTube videos on the disease found that 77% of them had factual errors or biased content, which either in the video section or in the comments section.
Publication in the journal European urology Online, on November 27th, the study also revealed that 75% of the videos comprehensively described the benefits of various treatments, while only 53% of the videos adequately considered the disadvantages and potential adverse effects. According to 19% of the authors of the study, 19% of patients recommended alternative or complementary treatments that have not been proven They cite a potentially harmful example in which a video was promoting "injecting herbs "in the prostate to treat cancer, unsubstantiated claim by medical evidence.
The researchers said the audience for these videos on YouTube was wide, with an average total audience of 45,000 people, but up to 1.3 million. More than 600,000 prostate cancer videos are published on the social media platform.
"Our study shows that people really need to be wary of many YouTube videos about prostate cancer," said Stacy Loeb, MD, urology researcher and urologist, who chairs a panel of social media experts from the US. American Urological Association (AUA). "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."
In addition, only 50% of the videos badyzed describe "shared decision-making", the current standard of care for screening and treating prostate cancer, said Loeb, an badistant professor in the departments of urology and population health of the NYU School of Medicine.
The latest US guidelines, revised last year, recommend that men age 55 to 69 talk to their doctor about the risks and benefits of screening for prostate cancer. According to Loeb, many popular videos predate this change and also encourage more aggressive treatment than is currently considered medically necessary for low-risk diseases.
According to Loeb, healthcare providers should refer their patients to reliable sources of information about prostate cancer. She also encourages other doctors and providers to participate in social media platforms such as YouTube to produce videos offering evidence-based advice.
According to Loeb, credible sources of information online about prostate cancer are widely available and include the Prostate Cancer Foundation, which helped fund the ongoing study; the Urology Care Foundation, the AAU website for patients; and the National Cancer Institute, among others.
According to Loeb, the volume of videos on YouTube prevents medical experts from reviewing them permanently as part of any "policing" effort. But, she adds, doctors and other viewers should use the YouTube reporting feature to alert their makers of videos containing misleading information.
For the final badysis, Loeb and his team, which included social media experts, badessed the educational value of each video on the basis of more than a dozen features, including accuracy, level of misinformation, and trade bias. Previous studies on prostate cancer videos, she noted, were smaller and did not use standardized techniques to evaluate their content.
In addition to the Prostate Cancer Foundation, funding for this study was provided by the Blank Family Foundation. Loeb also reports receiving travel expenses, conferences, consulting fees and / or fees from manufacturers and service providers related to prostate cancer treatments, including Sanofi and Lilly. His wife also has a financial interest in Gilead. All relationships are managed in accordance with NYU Langone policies. The co-researchers of his study report relationships with Mundipharma Australia, Janssen Australia, Ipsen Australia, MSD Australia, East Melbourne Primary Health Network, Teva and ISMAR Healthcare.
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In addition to Loeb, Rebecca Robbins, PhD; Scott Braithwaite, MD, MS; Lingshan Gao, MS: Nataliya Byrne, BA; Dawn Walter, MPH; and Aisha Langford, PhD, MPH. Shomik Sengupta, MD, of Monash University in Victoria, Australia; Mohit Butaney, MD, Royal College of Surgeons, Ireland; Joseph Macaluso, MD, Louisiana State University in New Orleans; and Stefan Czarniecki, MD, at the Prostate Cancer Center of the HIFU Clinic in Warsaw, Poland.
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