If you’re trying to learn about the rewards – and risks – of plastic surgery on YouTube, there’s something you should know, according to Rutgers University: most of the videos you see are just “trying to sell you something.”
That’s the conclusion that a team of researchers at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School recently reached after examining 240 top-viewed videos with 160 million combined views on the highly used social media website.
The study, published Thursday in the “JAMA Facial Plastic Surgery,” took a closer look at keyword searches for terms such as “blepharoplasty,” “eyelid surgery,” “dermal fillers,” “facial fillers,” “otoplasty,” “ear surgery,” “rhytidectomy,” “facelift,” “lip augmentation,” “lip fillers,” “rhinoplasty” and “nose job.”
The researchers evaluated the videos using DISCERN criteria, a scale for assessing the quality of medical information based on:
The researchers also evaluated the people who posted the videos, including whether they were health care professionals, patients or third parties. Physicians were rated by their board status on the American Board of Medical Specialties database.
According to Rutgers researchers, the results revealed that the majority of videos did not include professionals qualified in the procedures portrayed, including 94 videos with “no medical professional at all.”
Not all of the videos were ethically dicey, researchers said. The study found that 72 videos featuring board-certified physicians had “relatively high” DISCERN scores and provided “some valuable patient information.”
However, even videos posted by legitimate board-certified surgeons can potentially just be “marketing tools made to look like educational videos,” said lead author Boris Paskhover, an assistant professor at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School’s department of otolaryngology.
Paskhover, who specializes in facial plastic and reconstructive surgery, said that patients and physicians who use YouTube for educational purposes should be aware that videos can present biased information.
“YouTube is for marketing,” he emphasized. “The majority of the people who post these videos are trying to sell you something.”
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