Patient education on subacromial impingement syndrome: Reliability and educational quality of content available on Google and YouTube

Objective The purpose of this study was to assess the reliability and educational quality of content available on Google and YouTube regarding subacromial impingement syndrome (SAIS). Methods Google and YouTube were queried for English and German results on SAIS using the search terms “shoulder impingement” and the German equivalent “Schulter Impingement”. The analysis was restricted to the first 30 results of each query performed. Number of views and likes as well as upload source and length of content were recorded. Each result was evaluated by two independent reviewers using the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) benchmark criteria (score range, 0–5) to assess reliability and the DISCERN score (score range, 16–80) and a SAIS-specific score (SAISS, score range, 0–100) to evaluate educational content. Results The 58 websites found on Google and 48 videos found on YouTube were included in the analysis. The average number of views per video was 220,180 ± 415,966. The average text length was 1375 ± 997 words and the average video duration 456 ± 318 s. The upload sources were mostly non-physician based (74.1% of Google results and 79.2% of YouTube videos). Overall, there were poor results in reliability and educational quality, with sources from doctors having a significantly higher mean reliability measured in the JAMA score ( p