Quality of Pelvic Floor Therapy Videos on YouTube: Does Popularity Predict Reliability?

Abstract

Abstract This study reviewed instructional videos on YouTube regarding pelvic floor physical therapy and assessed the association between the videos’ popularity and the reliability of the videos’ content. YouTube was searched using the terms relevant to pelvic floor muscle training. The first 100 videos for each search term were screened, and relevant metrics were collected for those meeting the inclusion criteria. Videos were assessed by 2 independent, trained health care professionals for reliability using the Medical Quality Video Evaluation (MQ-VET) tool, the modified DISCERN tool, the Journal of American Medical Association benchmark criteria, and the Global Quality Score. Popularity was assessed using the Video Power Index (VPI). Higher values for all scoring systems correlated with greater reliability and greater popularity, respectively. Five hundred videos were screened. Two hundred thirty-four videos were duplicates, and 99 did not meet the inclusion criteria. A total of 167 videos were reviewed. The median VPI and MQ-VET score was 201,114.76 (interquartile range, 7,194,020.29) and 48.00 (interquartile range, 12.75), respectively. Spearman’s R value was 0.292 (P < 0.001), demonstrating a weak positive correlation between MQ-VET scores and VPI. The interrater reliability of the MQ-VET was good, with an intraclass correlation coefficient of 0.86 (95% confidence interval, 0.71–0.92). In summary, we identified a statistically significant but weak positive correlation between the reliability and popularity of YouTube videos about pelvic floor physical therapy.