Is YouTube a reliable source for athletic taping?

Abstract

Background Taping has a critical role in athlete health. Aims To evaluate the quality, characteristics and reliability of the most viewed taping videos in YouTube. Methods Uploaded videos were searched with "athletic taping" and "rigid taping" keywords in YouTube. The educational content quality of the videos was assessed using the Global Quality Scale (GQS), and reliability was evaluated using the Journal American Medical Association (JAMA) benchmark criteria. Video uploaders (source) were divided into three groups (physiotherapists (PT), athletic trainers (AT) and non-PT/AT) and compared in terms of video quality, reliability and characteristics. Results 82 videos were included in the study. The mean JAMA score of the videos was 2.91 +/- 0.89 and GQS score was 4.06 +/- 0.87. A significant difference was found among video uploading groups base on days since upload, number of views, daily views, dislikes, like ratio, and JAMA and GQS scores (p < 0.05). Less number of days since upload was found for AT videos versus PT and non-PT/AT videos (p = 0.007, p = 0.007). The number of views and daily views were higher for PT videos than AT videos (p = 0.004, p = 0.017). The number of dislikes was also higher for PT videos compared to AT videos (p = 0.017), with no significant difference versus non-PT/AT group (p < 0.05). Non-PT/AT videos showed a greater like ratio than PT videos (p = 0.022). PT videos had higher JAMA and GQS scores compared to AT and non-PT/AT videos (p = 0.001 vs. p = 0.001, p = 0.010 vs. p = 0.001). Conclusion YouTube can be regarded as a useful platform that provides high quality and reliable videos on athletic taping.