Content Analysis of YouTube Videos Addressing Infant Hearing Loss: A Cross-Sectional Study

Background: The Internet has become a widely used and popular method for obtaining information about medical problems, including infant hearing loss. Aims: This study examined the source, content, understandability, and actionability of information related to infant hearing loss. Methods: The top viewed YouTube videos were identified and coded. The general information related to the video such as title, source, duration, date of upload, views, thumbs up, thumbs down, and location were extracted. The content of the video was extracted and coded using a pre-designed sheet. Patient Education Material Assessment Tool for Audiovisual materials (PEMAT-A/V) was used to check for the understandability and actionability. Results: The videos with more than 1000 views were identified (n = 73) and included for further analysis. It was noted that consumer-created videos wereviewed more as compared to organization-created videos. The most common themes that emerged were diagnosis of hearing loss (88%), the importance of early hearing detection and intervention (74%), and universal newborn hearing screening (67%). Conclusions: Overall, poor scores were reported for both actionability and understandability. This indicates that there is a need for improvement and a need for more information across all content areas relevant to infant hearing loss.