Characteristics of YouTube Videos About Peripheral Artery Disease During COVID-19 Pandemic

Introduction: To examine English language YouTube videos that covered both COVID-19 and peripheral artery disease (PAD). Methods: The research was planned from October 1 to 5, 2020. Two cardiologists (CB and ES) executed online searches in which the term COVID-19/coronavirus was paired with common keywords about PAD, including ‘peripheral artery disease + COVID-19,’ ‘leg pain + coronavirus,’ ‘leg vascular disease + COVID-19,’ ‘atherosclerosis + COVID-19,’ and ‘claudication + coronavirus.’ For each video, a record was made of the number of days on YouTube, length, number of views and comments, and the number of ‘likes’ and ‘dislikes’. Videos were also categorized according to content as informative videos (with accurate content about the frequency of disease, symptoms, transmission, prevention techniques, and proven treatment methods), patient experience videos (with patient testimonies), or news update videos (i.e., those uploaded by professional news channels). Moreover, DISCERN and Medical Information and Content Index (MICI) were evaluated. Results: Totally, 91 YouTube videos met study inclusion criteria. News update videos were the most-watched when compared with informative and patient experience videos (63,910 views vs 43,725 views vs19,778 views, p=0.032). The DISCERN score was significantly higher in the informative group: 2.8 for informative videos, 1.7 for patients' experience videos, and 1.8 for news update videos (p= 0.001). The most common theme was clinical symptoms in the informative videos (82.4%). The mean MICI score was calculated as 3.7±1.4 points for informative videos. Conclusion: YouTube videos about COVID-19 and PAD are widely-viewed information sources for patients. Our study has demonstrated that YouTube videos about COVID-19 and PAD generally had poor quality content.