Analysis of YouTube as a source of information for West Nile Virus Infection

Introduction A major outbreak of West Nile Virus was seen last year in different parts of United States. Adequate dissemination of correct information about the same would have helped in decreasing the disease spread and associated panic in the general population. In this study, we looked into the use of YouTube as a source of information on West Nile Virus infection.

Objective This study aims to identify and evaluate YouTube as source of information on West Nile Virus infection.

Methods YouTube was searched on November 25^th, 2012, using the keywords West Nile Virus epidemic, West Nile Virus infection, West Nile Virus prevention for videos uploaded in the past six months containing relevant information about the disease. The videos were classified as useful, misleading, or as news updates based on the kind of information contained. Total viewership, number of days since upload, total duration of videos, and source of upload were noted.

Results A total of 106 videos with information on West Nile Virus infection were included in the study. 79.24% had useful information about the disease. Among the useful videos, 51/84 (60.71%) had information on disease prevention and 29/84 (34.52%) contained information on news and research updates. Majority of these videos were uploaded by individuals (54.6%) and news agencies (41.8 %). Healthcare agencies contributed only 3.4 % of the total videos. Even though the useful videos represented 72% of total duration of all videos, there was significantly higher total viewership and viewership per day for non useful videos (p<0.05).

Conclusions YouTube can be a significant source of information dissemination on public health issues like West Nile virus infection and should be targeted by health care agencies for the same. Major drawback of this medium is lack of verification by authorized health care professionals before these videos are made available for viewing by the community. Hence a strict caution should be exercised in obtaining the information from unauthorized videos posted on YouTube.