Background

The current 2019 novel coronavirus outbreak is rapidly evolving. YouTube has been recognized as a popular source of information in previous disease outbreaks. We analyzed the content on YouTube about n-CoV in English and Mandarin languages.

Methods

YouTube was searched using the terms ‘2019 novel coronavirus’, ‘Wuhan virus’ and ‘武汉病毒’ (Mandarin for Wuhan virus) on 1st and 2nd February 2020. First 50 videos in each group were analyzed. Videos in other languages, duplicate videos, those without an audio and duration >15 min were excluded .72 videos in English and 42 in Mandarin were reviewed. 2 reviewers classified the videos as useful, misleading or news based on pre specified criterion. Inter-observer agreement was evaluated with kappa coefficient. Modified DISCERN index for reliability and medical information and content index (MICI) score were used for content analysis.

Results

These videos attracted cumulative 21,288,856 views. 67% of English and 50% Mandarin videos had useful information. The viewership of misleading Mandarin videos was higher than the useful ones. WHO accounted for only 4% of useful videos. Mean DISCERN score for reliability was 3.12/5 and 3.25/5 for English and Mandarin videos respectively. Mean cumulative MICI score of useful videos was low (6.71/25 for English and 6.28/25 for Mandarin).

Conclusions

YouTube viewership during 2019 n-CoV outbreak is higher than previous outbreaks. The medical content of videos is suboptimal International health agencies are underrepresented. Given its popularity, YouTube should be considered as important platform for information dissemination.

中文翻译：

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YouTube 作为 2019 年新型冠状病毒爆发的信息来源：英语和普通话内容的横断面研究。

背景

当前，2019年新型冠状病毒疫情正在迅速演变。YouTube 已被认为是以往疾病爆发期间的热门信息来源。我们分析了 YouTube 上有关新型冠状病毒的英语和普通话内容。

方法

2020 年 2 月 1 日至 2 日，YouTube 使用“2019 新型冠状病毒”、“武汉病毒”和“武汉病毒”（普通话，即武汉病毒）等词进行搜索。对每组的前 50 个视频进行了分析。其他语言的视频、重复的视频、没有音频且时长超过 15 分钟的视频均被排除。审查了 72 个英语视频和 42 个普通话视频。2 名评论者根据预先指定的标准将视频分类为有用、误导或新闻。使用 kappa 系数评估观察者间的一致性。使用改进的 DISCERN 可靠性指数和医学信息和内容指数 (MICI) 评分进行内容分析。

结果

这些视频累计吸引了 21,288,856 次观看。67% 的英语视频和 50% 的普通话视频包含有用信息。误导性普通话视频的观看人数高于有用视频的观看人数。WHO 只占有用视频的 4%。英语和普通话视频的可靠性平均 DISCERN 得分分别为 3.12/5 和 3.25/5。有用视频的平均累积 MICI 分数较低（英语为 6.71/25，普通话为 6.28/25）。

结论

2019 年新型冠状病毒爆发期间的 YouTube 收视率高于之前的爆发期间。视频的医疗内容欠佳 国际卫生机构代表性不足。鉴于其受欢迎程度，YouTube 应被视为重要的信息传播平台。