ArticleDigital health
What to watch: Practical considerations and strategies for using YouTube for research.
Article in Digital health. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed.
- Content and quality analysis of YouTube videos on therapeutic exercises for Parkinson's disease.Journal of Parkinson's disease · 2026Article
- YouTube as a source of patient information on erythema nodosum: an analysis of quality and reliability.Clinical rheumatology · 2026Article
- Monitoring Emerging Risks for Consumers: DIY Projects Using Epoxy Resins in YouTube Videos.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2026Article
- Article
- Can't help falling in love… with a bot? A mixed-methods analysis of public discourses of AI intimacy and companionship on YouTube.Frontiers in sociology · 2026Article
- Aspergillosis on YouTube: Assessment of Quality and Reliability of Uploaded Videos.Mycopathologia · 2025Article
- Evaluating the Quality and Reliability of YouTube as a Source of Information on Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation: A Call to Publish More Quality Videos by Professionals.Journal of Korean medical science · 2025Article
- YouTube as a source of information for stroke rehabilitation: a cross-sectional analysis of quality and reliability of videos.Rheumatology international · 2025Article
- Assessment of the quality and reliability of YouTube videos related to teleradiology in musculoskeletal and rheumatic diseases: a cross-sectional study.Rheumatology international · 2025Article
- Constructing unverifiable reality: a qualitative study of the prison planet conspiracy hypothesis on YouTube.Frontiers in sociology · 2025Article
- AI-Enhanced evaluation of YouTube content on post-surgical incontinence following pelvic cancer treatment.SSM - population health · 2024Article
- Assessing the Quality of YouTube's Incontinence Information after Cancer Surgery: An Innovative Graphical Analysis.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- A Critical Review of YouTube Videos on the Socket-shield Technique: A Content-quality Analysis.Contemporary clinical dentistryArticle
- Article
- Exploring global variations in the quality of patient information videos for keratoplasty.Oman journal of ophthalmologyArticle
- Viewer Engagement Patterns in Advanced Procedural and Patient-Facing Orthopedic YouTube Videos: A Seven-Year Single-Channel Cross-Sectional Analysis.Inquiry : a journal of medical care organization, provision and financingArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
YouTube is the second-most visited webpage in the world and boasts over 2 billion users and 500 h of videos uploaded every hour. Despite this popularity, relatively few articles have discussed the practical use of searching and YouTube as a research tool and source of data. The purpose of our paper is to propose a step-by-step schematic for utilizing the YouTube platform. Our discussions include (a) when/whether to use YouTube for research; (b) selecting an appropriate research design; (c) how to search for YouTube data; (d) what data can be pulled from YouTube; and (e) the contextual limitations for interpreting YouTube data. Further, we provide practical strategies and considerations when searching, collecting, or interpreting YouTube data. These discussions are informed by our own work using the YouTube platform. Effective methods used to search for YouTube data are likely to extend beyond simply searching the platform itself; the search strategy and search results themselves should also be documented. While not exhaustive, we feel these considerations and strategies present themselves as a conceptual foothold for future research using the YouTube platform.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.