title: Misleading health-related information promoted through video-based social media: anorexia on YouTube.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The amount of information being uploaded onto social video platforms, such as YouTube, Vimeo, and Veoh, continues to spiral, making it increasingly difficult to discern reliable health information from misleading content. There are thousands of YouTube videos promoting misleading information about anorexia (eg, anorexia as a healthy lifestyle).
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The aim of this study was to investigate anorexia-related misinformation disseminated through YouTube videos.
  
  
  METHODS
  We retrieved YouTube videos related to anorexia using the keywords anorexia, anorexia nervosa, proana, and thinspo on October 10, 2011.Three doctors reviewed 140 videos with approximately 11 hours of video content, classifying them as informative, pro-anorexia, or others. By informative we mean content describing the health consequences of anorexia and advice on how to recover from it; by pro-anorexia we mean videos promoting anorexia as a fashion, a source of beauty, and that share tips and methods for becoming and remaining anorexic. The 40 most-viewed videos (20 informative and 20 pro-anorexia videos) were assessed to gauge viewer behavior.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The interrater agreement of classification was moderate (Fleiss' kappa=0.5), with 29.3% (n=41) being rated as pro-anorexia, 55.7% (n=78) as informative, and 15.0% (n=21) as others. Pro-anorexia videos were favored 3 times more than informative videos (odds ratio [OR] 3.3, 95% CI 3.3-3.4, P<.001).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Pro-anorexia information was identified in 29.3% of anorexia-related videos. Pro-anorexia videos are less common than informative videos; however, in proportional terms, pro-anorexia content is more highly favored and rated by its viewers. Efforts should focus on raising awareness, particularly among teenagers, about the trustworthiness of online information about beauty and healthy lifestyles. Health authorities producing videos to combat anorexia should consider involving celebrities and models to reach a wider audience. More research is needed to study the characteristics of pro-anorexia videos in order to develop algorithms that will automatically detect and filter those videos before they become popular.
authors: Graduate Institute of Medical Informatics, College of Medical Science and Technology, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan.
authors: Shabbir
authors: S
authors: Syed-Abdul
authors: Luis
authors: L
authors: Fernandez-Luque
authors: Wen-Shan
authors: WS
authors: Jian
authors: Yu-Chuan
authors: YC
authors: Li
authors: Steven
authors: S
authors: Crain
authors: Min-Huei
authors: MH
authors: Hsu
authors: Yao-Chin
authors: YC
authors: Wang
authors: Dorjsuren
authors: D
authors: Khandregzen
authors: Enkhzaya
authors: E
authors: Chuluunbaatar
authors: Phung Anh
authors: PA
authors: Nguyen
authors: Der-Ming
authors: DM
authors: Liou
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000855:Anorexia / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy; D003142:Communication; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior; D006801:Humans; D033181:Information Dissemination; D010379:Peer Group; D061108:Social Media; D017216:Telemedicine; D014741:Video Recording; D055815:Young Adult