Introduction
Concise Medical Information Cines (CoMICs) creates video infographics on various diseases tailored towards medical students and healthcare professionals (HCPs).
Diabetes and polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) are highly prevalent conditions and the importance of online resources for HCPs has become apparent. YouTube is a widely used resource regarding these conditions for both patients and HCPs; however, not all the videos offer accurate information and can sometimes be misleading.
The study aimed to assess YouTube videos about diabetes and PCOS targeted at patients and HCPs and compare these with the quality, content and reliability of CoMICs on the same topics.
Materials and methods
Videos relating to diabetes and PCOS were screened using agreed search terms and filtered using inclusion and exclusion criteria. A total of 124 videos, including the videos published by CoMICs, were finalised and each video was analysed using the DISCERN, JAMA, and GQS tools by two independent reviewers.
Results
In general, CoMICs videos scored higher if not the same in DISCERN, JAMA, and GQS in both diabetes and PCOS videos. Notably, in the DISCERN analysis, CoMICs videos on PCOS scored the highest in this section with a mean total score of 25.4+/-2.6 over the questions that assessed reliability. In contrast, YouTube videos on PCOS scored 19.1+/-3.9 and the You and Your Hormones video scored 19.
Conclusions
CoMICs was shown to provide more accurate and reliable results than its counterparts on YouTube and is a reliable source of medical information on diabetes and PCOS for patients and HCPs.