Can You Trust What You Watch? An Assessment of the Quality of Information in Aesthetic Surgery Videos on YouTube

Sir: We read with interest the article by Gray et al.1 in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. The authors focused on the qualities of videos on YouTube, which is an important source of cosmetic surgery information for the general public. A conclusion was made that the information linked to cosmetic surgery on YouTube had relatively poor quality and deviation of content according to a comprehensive evaluation of 523 videos. The situation was caused by the fact that videos containing plastic surgery could be posted on YouTube by anyone without proper regulation and oversight. It was also mentioned that physician authorship had a higher mean score than videos provided by others. As a Chinese plastic surgeon, I would like to provide more information about similar circumstances in China. For Chinese patients, the sources of medical information related to aesthetic and plastic procedures include traditional media, official websites of public hospitals, websites of private medical institutions, social networking sites, and intermediary websites established as marketing tools. Admittedly, the impact of social media such as WeChat is ever-growing in China, not only for communication but also for querying information.2 Similar to YouTube, the provided medical knowledge is inevitably unbalanced because the posting contents are always based on the intention to advertise hospitals or organizations. Also, it is not objective enough because of the exaggeration of the surgery effect. Thus, physician advertisements and personal experiences provided by patients could display a high bias.3 When people search for medical knowledge on these websites, the accessible text and videos lack decent monitoring and management. In addition, the fields of plastic and cosmetic surgery and medical resources have increased remarkably in China. With a population close to 1.4 billion, both the investment and consumption associated with plastic and aesthetic fields are growing steadily because plenty of patients are seeking cosmetic procedures.4 There is a strong demand by patients for more detailed, informed, veracious medical information and guidance through websites and applications. It is imperative and urgent to improve the quality and integrity of the information that patients will encounter when searching for plastic surgery procedures. The establishment of a high-quality information system designed for nonprofessionals is required. This study provides us more ideas about the evaluation of information containing plastic surgery procedures and unified management of websites and social media. The huge market in China is a double-edged sword: on the one hand, it is a precious opportunity to develop the field of plastic surgery; on the other hand, it enhances the difficulty of providing extensive, informative, and accurate content to patients. We still have a long way to go and need to work hard to set up an unbiased supervisory system and provide more detailed knowledge to help the public to obtain appropriate information and further understand plastic surgery. DISCLOSURE The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest. No funding was received for this communication.