Characteristics of YouTube™ Videos Related to Mammography

With a monthly total of more than one billion unique visitors, YouTube™ is one of the Internet’s most visited websites and contributes to the growing amount of health-related information on the Internet. The purpose of this study was to analyze coverage of mammography screening in popular YouTube™ videos. A total of 173 videos were included in the analysis. Compared with professionally created videos, consumer-created videos had a significantly greater number of comments (>9 comments 38.0 % for consumer vs. 11.8 % for professional videos, p = < 0.001). Videos created by professionals more often portrayed general mammography information (97.1 vs. 88.7 %) compared to those created by consumers. The vast majority of videos presented general information (93.6 %) related to mammography, and almost two thirds addressed preparing for the test. Less than 20 % dealt with other types of examinations. Approximately 30 % discussed pain associated with the examination (35.3 %) and addressed issues of anxiety (32.4 %) and fear (29.5 %). Nearly half of the videos presented information about the test results (46.2 %). Over 25 % covered medical or family history. The majority did not pertain to a specific age group. Future research should focus on analyzing the accuracy of the information in the videos.