• Fatih Cakmak, Seda Ozkan, Afsin Ipekci, Altug Kanbakan, Turker Demirtakan, Serap Biberoglu, Kubra Cakmak, Nura Fitnat Topbas Selcuki, and Turkan Ikizceli.
• Department of Emergency Medicine, Cerrahpasa Faculty of Medicine, Istanbul University-Cerrahpasa, Istanbul, Turkey.
• East. Mediterr. Health J. 2021 May 27; 27 (5): 443-451.

BackgroundYouTube can be a powerful educational tool for the dissemination of health information. However, if uploaded health-related videos are inaccurate, it can mislead, create confusion and generate panic.AimsThis study aimed to determine the success of the most-watched Turkish-language COVID-19 YouTube videos regarding information and guidance on the disease for the public. The secondary aim of this study was to evaluate the accuracy and quality of such video content.MethodsThe study was conducted during May 2020 and analysed 133 videos. The length of the videos, the number of likes and dislikes, comments and views, how long they have been on YouTube, Medical Information and Content Index (MICI) Score, mDISCERN scores, global quality scores, and the source and target audiences of the videos were all determined.ResultsThe average MICI Scores of videos was 2.48±3.74 and the global quality scores was 1.27±0.64. When MICI Scores were compared between video sources, the scores of academic hospitals and government videos were significantly higher. The global quality scores of videos from news agencies and independent users was significantly lower ( < 0.001). The mDISCERN score of the videos uploaded by news agencies and categorized as useful was higher than the others (P < 0.001). Among the targeted videos, only the global quality scores of the videos made for health-care workers were found to be significantly higher.ConclusionHealth-care professionals should upload more videos to improve the quality of health-related video content available on YouTube. Accompanied by evidence-based information, the issues of diagnosis, ways of transmission, prevention and treatment of diseases should be emphasized.Copyright © World Health Organization (WHO) 2021. Open Access. Some rights reserved. This work is available under the CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/igo).

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