ArticleArchives of physiotherapy2022
Can YouTube be used as an educational tool in lymphedema rehabilitation?
Article in Archives of physiotherapy, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers.
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Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed, 14 citations in OpenAlex.
- Exploring Service Users' Experiences of Activities Used During Their Occupational Therapy Treatment in South Africa.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Educational quality of YouTube videos on scapular dyskinesis: a cross-sectional analysis.Clinics in shoulder and elbow · 2025Article
- Analyzing Turkish-Language HPV Vaccination Videos on YouTube: Assessing Content Quality and Educational Value.Infectious diseases & clinical microbiology · 2025Article
- Analysis of Youtube Videos for Artificial Airway Suctioning Training of Nurses: A Content Analysis.Journal of evaluation in clinical practice · 2025Article
- Douyin and Bilibili as sources of information on lung cancer in China through assessment and analysis of the content and quality.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- YouTube videos on lymphedema as an information source for Spanish speaking breast cancer survivors.Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer · 2024Article
- Freely available, online videos to support neurological physiotherapists and students in task-specific training skill acquisition: a scoping review.BMC medical education · 2024Article
- Exercises for fibromyalgia syndrome: what YouTube tells us as a source of information for patient and physician education.Clinical rheumatology · 2024Article
- YouTube as a Source of Patient and Trainee Education in Vascular Surgery: A Systematic Review.EJVES vascular forum · 2024Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundLymphedema is defined as the abnormal accumulation of interstitial fluid and fibro-adipose tissues resulting from injury, infection, or congenital abnormalities of the lymphatic system. The gold standard approach in the treatment of lymphedema is Complete Decongestive Therapy and it has many components that require practical knowledge and skills. YouTube can be a useful tool to provide these skills to healthcare professionals and patients. The aim of this study was to examine the videos about lymphedema rehabilitation on YouTube and analyze their technical features, sources, contents, educational value and reliability.
methodsThe YouTube database was searched using the "lymphedema rehabilitation", "lymphedema treatment", "complete decongestive therapy", "lymphedema massage", and "lymphedema exercises" keywords. Two reviewers (Physical medicine and rehabilitation specialist) assessed videos for educational quality using a Global Quality Scale (GQS). To evaluate the reliability the 5-point Discern scale was used.
resultsA total of 90 videos, which met the inclusion criteria were included in the analysis. The mean duration of the videos was 8.9 ± 10.5 min. The mean number of daily views was 22.7 ± 47.1 for a day. The majority of the videos were created to inform patients (57.8%).The uploaders were mostly private healthcare institutions or healthcare professionals (65.6%). Information providers were lymphedema therapists mostly (63.3%). Manual lymphatic drainage was observed to stand out as the most mentioned lymphedema rehabilitation component on YouTube. The mean of reliability and GQS scores of the videos were 2.2 ± 1.0 and 2.7 ± 1.0, respectively.
conclusionsThe biggest obstacle for YouTube to be an excellent source of information is that it hosts large volumes of uncontrolled and low-quality data. When Youtube content related to lymphedema rehabilitation was examined, it was observed that many videos were quite insufficient and incomplete even though there were useful videos. If careful controlling measures are implemented and if medical videos aim to meet reliability and GQS criteria, YouTube can become an effective and useful source of information for lymphedema rehabilitation.
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