A cross-sectional study of YouTube videos about atopic dermatitis

Patients are increasingly looking to online platforms for health information. One popular online platform is YouTube, which is a free video-streaming service. The loose content regulations of YouTube allow users to broadcast false information as easily as accurate information. One study found that most of the YouTube videos about tanning beds portrayed them in a positive light and another found that half of YouTube videos on immunizations did not explicitly support them. We conducted a cross-sectional study on the information on YouTube about atopic dermatitis (AD) by performing 5 searches on YouTube using the search terms "atopic dermatitis," "eczema," "eczema tips," "eczema cure," and "eczema treatment." We screened the first 2 pages of results for inclusion.

Benjamin Freemyer, BS, Brandy Drozd, BS, Andrea Suarez, MD, PhD

JAAD March 2018 Volume 78, Issue 3, Pages 612-613