YouTube as a Source of Information on the Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Mental Health of Children

Masum Öztürk, Yekta Özkan, Şermin Yalın Sapmaz, Hasan Kandemir
2022 Çocuk ve Gençlik Ruh Sağlığı Dergisi / Turkish Journal of Child and Adolescent Mental Health  
World Health Organization has announced that the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) outbreak is a pandemic that causes worry and panic in anyone who is exposed to the virus's actual or imagined threat. Our lifestyles and life patterns have radically changed, and the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic has pervaded all areas of our daily lives. The aim of this research was to evaluate the quality of the most popular YouTube TM videos about the effects of COVID-19 infection/pandemic status on
more » ... n and adolescents. Materials and Methods: DISCERN tool and the Global Quality Scale were used to the reliability and quality of videos, respectively. The quality of the videos is classified into three groups as "poor quality", "moderate quality" and "good/ excellent quality". Results: A total of 112 videos were included in the study and these videos were evaluated by the researchers. Of the videos, 31.3% (n=35) were of good/excellent quality, 32.1% (n=36) were moderate, and 36.6% (n=41) were of poor quality. It was determined that the reliability of the good/excellent quality videos was statistically significantly higher than the moderate and poor-quality videos (p<0.001). Conclusion: Although YouTube TM contains important health data, some of this information is false and consists of low-quality videos. Mental health professionals should direct patients to the correct internet information resources.
doi:10.4274/tjcamh.galenos.2021.21549 fatcat:p67uep2fhreyfckimflqsk6jei