Abstract

Introduction: YouTube is a popular social media platform frequently searched by online users for retrieving health-related information. Pulmonary rehabilitation programs have an important place in the COVID-19 treatment protocols. The aim of this study was to evaluate COVID-19 pulmonary rehabilitation videos on YouTube. Methods: A total of 180 videos tagged with the search terms “COVID-19 pulmonary rehabilitation”, “COVID-19 pulmonary exercise” and “COVID-19 pulmonary physiotherapy” were retrieved. Of these, 63 videos met the study inclusion criteria. The Global Quality Scale and the modified DISCERN tool were performed for quality and reliability assessments. Duration of video, upload date, number of views, likes, dislikes, and comments were recorded. Video sources were determined. Results: Of the total 63 videos, 22 were classified in the high-quality group, 19 intermediate quality group, and 22 low quality group. The main sources of the high-quality videos were universities and physicians. Others, patients, independent users and health related websites produced high rates of low-quality videos. No significant difference was detected in views, likes, dislikes, and comments per day between the quality groups. Conclusion: Numbers of high, intermediate and low-quality videos were very close to each other. It is necessary to consider the video sources in order to find videos that contains accurate information. Video parameters other than sources should not be considered as quality indicators.