Is YouTube a reliable source of health-related information? A systematic review
Open accessPublished version of a preprint
Abstract
Background: YouTube is a valuable source of health-related educational material which can have a profound impact on people’s behaviors and decisions. However, YouTube contains a wide variety of unverified content that may promote unhealthy behaviors and activities. We aim in this systematic review to provide insight into the published literature concerning the quality of health information and educational videos found on YouTube. Methods: We searched Google Scholar, Medline (through PubMed), EMBASE, Scopus, Direct Science, Web of Science, and ProQuest databases to find all papers on the analysis of medical and health-related content published in English up to August 2020. Based on eligibility criteria, 202 papers were included in our study. We reviewed every article and extracted relevant data such as the number of videos and assessors, the number and type of quality categories, and the recommendations made by the authors. The extracted data from the papers were aggregated using different methods to compile the results. Results: The total number of videos assessed in the selected articles is 22,300 (median = 94, interquartile range = 50.5–133). The videos were evaluated by one or multiple assessors (median = 2, interquartile range = 1–3). The video quality was assessed by scoring, categorization, or based on creators’ bias. Researchers commonly employed scoring systems that are either standardized (e.g., GQS, DISCERN, and JAMA) or based upon the guidelines and recommendations of professional associations. Results from the aggregation of scoring or categorization data indicate that health-related content on YouTube is of average to below-average quality. The compiled results from bias-based classification show that only 32% of the videos appear neutral toward the health content. Furthermore, the majority of the studies confirmed either negative or no correlation between the quality and popularity of the assessed videos. Conclusions: YouTube is not a reliable source of medical and health-related information. YouTube’s popularity-driven metrics such as the number of views and likes should not be considered quality indicators. YouTube should improve its ranking and recommender system to promote higher-quality content. One way is to consider expert reviews of medical and health-related videos and to include their assessment data in the ranking algorithm.
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The Global Quality Score (GQS) is a widely validated 5-point Likert scale originally developed for patient-facing web-based health content and subsequently validated for short-form video health content analyses.
“The Global Quality Score (GQS), a widely validated 5-point Likert scale (1 = poor to 5 = excellent) originally developed to evaluate the overall educational quality of patient-facing web-based health content and subsequently validated for use in short-form video health content analyses20–24”
From Quality, reliability, and treatment misinformation risk of epilepsy content on Chinese short-video platforms TikTok (Douyin) and Bilibili: a cross-sectional analysis (2026) · cites this paper as [22]
The Results sections on methodological aspects and quality assessment by scores describe GQS as a commonly used, standardized five-point measure for assessing health-related YouTube videos; 25 reviewed papers used it. They do not establish that it is a Likert scale, identify its original purpose as evaluating patient-facing web content, or report validation for short-form video analyses. Page numbers are not available in our copy. (LLM, conf=0.87)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe TMRS has not yet been externally validated in independent study samples, and its thresholds are interpreted as exploratory rather than definitive.
“we acknowledge that the TMRS has not yet been externally validated in independent study samples, with its thresholds interpreted as exploratory rather than definitive, and future studies are warranted to establish the external validity and predictive utility of this instrument[21,22,23].”
From Quality, reliability, and treatment misinformation risk of epilepsy content on Chinese short-video platforms TikTok (Douyin) and Bilibili: a cross-sectional analysis (2026) · cites this paper as [22]
The Results sections discuss scoring systems for assessing YouTube health videos, including GQS, DISCERN, and JAMA, but do not address the TMRS. Searches for TMRS, external validation, independent samples, and exploratory thresholds found no passage supporting the attributed claim. (LLM, conf=0.76)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
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“…and we acknowledge that the TMRS has not yet been externally validated in independent study samples, with its thresholds interpreted as exploratory rather than definitive, and future studies are warranted to establish the external validity and predictive utility of this instrument[ 21,22,23 ].”
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- Authors
- Osman, W., Mohamed, F., Elhassan, M., & Shoufan, A.
- Affiliations
- Khalifa University of Science and Technology (AE)
- Saint Agnes Medical Center (US)
- Corresponding author
- Osman, Wael
- Shoufan, Abdulhadi
- Venue
- BMC Medical Education
- Published
- 2022-05-19
- Volume
- 22
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 382-382
- ISSN
- 1472-6920 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC9117585
- OpenAlex
- W4280492063
- Cited by
- 437
- References
- 68
- Citations by year
- 2026: 147 · 2025: 134 · 2024: 95 · 2023: 54 · 2022: 7
- FWCI
- 10.02
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Locations
- BMC Medical Education (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Research Square (acceptedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Health › Social Media in Health Education
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Health Literacy and Information Accessibility
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Misinformation and Its Impacts
- Keywords
- YouTube, health information quality, video quality assessment, online health information reliability, recommender systems, GQS, DISCERN, user-generated health content
- MeSH terms
- Health Education, Humans, Video Recording, Reproducibility of Results, Information Dissemination, Social Media
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