Youtube as a source of information about stroke rehabilitation during the COVID-19 pandemic

Objective: Although stroke rehabilitation (SR) is part of post-stroke recovery, patients have limited knowledge on this subject. This study aims to analyze YouTube videos about SR in terms of the information value and quality. Methods: On YouTube.com; the word “SR” was searched in September 6th, 2021. The listed first 100 videos were classified according to count of like, dislike, source of upload, origin of country and contents of SR. Quality, reliability and accuracy of the videos were determined with Global Quality Score (GQS), Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA) benchmark criteria and Modified DISCERN questionnaire, respectively. Results: According to the results of the study, 59 low quality, 28 medium quality, and 13 high-quality videos were determined. Eighty one percent of the videos contained insufficient data. Academic and physician-sourced videos comprised the majority (84.7%) of the high-quality group. A statistically significant result was found between the video sources and the number of views, likes, dislikes, comments, and video duration (p<0.05). A weak positive correlation was found between video durations and GQS (r=0.671), JAMA benchmark criteria (r=0.665), modified DISCERN (r=0.701) scores (p<0.001). Conclusion: Our results showed that most of the YouTube videos on SR have poor quality and insufficient data. High-quality videos have a longer duration and are uploaded by academic and physician video sources. YouTube can be considered an alternative resource besides tele rehabilitation for patients who need SR and whose health care was interrupted during the COVID pandemic. It can be said that higher-quality videos created by health professionals will be more useful for patient education in future.