bims-librar 2022-01-30 papers

bims-librar

Biomed News

on Biomedical librarianship

Issue of 2022–01–30
sixteen papers selected by
Thomas Krichel, Open Library Society

COVID-19 Educational Support Team: Librarians, Physicians, and Medical Students Collaborate to Synthesize COVID-19 Research for Clinicians.
Engaging with technology: Projects and research initiated by health information professionals.
Massive open index of scholarly papers launches.
Understanding the Impact of Social Media Information and Misinformation Producers on Health Information Seeking. Comment on "Health Information Seeking Behaviors on Social Media During the COVID-19 Pandemic Among American Social Networking Site Users: Survey Study".
Beyond Depth and Breadth: Taking "Types" of Health Information Sought into Consideration with Cluster Analysis.
The Impact of Student-Faculty Collaborative Clinics on Patients' Health Seeking Behaviors in Underserved Communities.
Analysis of official websites providing online information on COVID-19 vaccination: readability, content quality, and listing of side effects.
Sources of Information on Medicinal Products Among Physicians - A Survey Conducted Among Primary Care Physicians in Poland.
Concerns of Quality and Reliability of Educational Videos Focused on Frailty Syndrome on YouTube Platform.
Readability and Quality Assessment of Online Materials for Syndactyly Release.
Readability of Korean-Language COVID-19 Education Materials Provided for the General Public on the National COVID-19 Portal of South Korea: Cross-Sectional Infodemiological Study.
Contraception Information on the Websites of Student Health Centers in the United States.
The quality and readability of online molar incisor hypomineralisation patient education materials: a systematic analysis.
Quality and Content Analysis of Carpal Tunnel Videos on YouTube.
Analysis of Information for Backyard Flock Owners Provided by Extension Websites.
An Exploration of e-Cigarette-Related Search Items on YouTube: Network Analysis.

Acad Med. 2022 Feb 01. 97(2): 168-170

COVID-19 Educational Support Team: Librarians, Physicians, and Medical Students Collaborate to Synthesize COVID-19 Research for Clinicians.

Kaitlyn Van Kampen, Maggie Collison, Vineet Arora.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1097/ACM.0000000000004483
Health Info Libr J. 2022 Jan 23.

Engaging with technology: Projects and research initiated by health information professionals.

Jeannette Murphy.

  The 2021 virtual issue of the Health Information and Libraries Journal is published to link to the Future Technologies Conference 2021, which takes place in Vancouver, Canada, 28-29 October 2021. This event, which began in 2016, presents the best of current systems research and practice. One of the themes of the 2021 conference is Smart Healthcare. Although libraries may appear to be far removed from some of the breakthroughs reported in the Future Technologies Conference, what is clear is that unlike those who work with technology, librarians work closely with the end users of health information-clinicians, managers, students, patients and the general public. The articles included in this virtual issue provide important insights into what library user groups want and what does and does not meet their needs.

Keywords:  Internet; clinical decision making; consumer health information; electronic health records; information and communication technologies

DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1111/hir.12407
Nature. 2022 Jan 24.

Massive open index of scholarly papers launches.

Dalmeet Singh Chawla.



Keywords:  Databases; Publishing

DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-00138-y
J Med Internet Res. 2022 Jan 25.

Understanding the Impact of Social Media Information and Misinformation Producers on Health Information Seeking. Comment on "Health Information Seeking Behaviors on Social Media During the COVID-19 Pandemic Among American Social Networking Site Users: Survey Study".

Hunter Slaton Boudreau, Nikhi Singh, Carter J Boyd.

UNSTRUCTURED: Our team's article serves as a response to Neely and colleagues' recent paper: Health Information Seeking Behaviors on Social Media During the COVID-19 Pandemic Among American Social Networking Site Users: Survey Study, wherein we provide additional information, challenge certain viewpoints, and provide future insight on the topic of how social media is influencing COVID-19 vaccination rates. While the original article suggests that social media serves as a determinant to COVID-19 vaccination rates in some respects, we provide novel perspective that suggests that the opposite outcome may be occurring. Additionally, our team proposes that the question at hand needs to be addressed by an alternative methodology to more accurately capture the magnitude of social media and its members, rather than a survey type model. Our team congratulates Neely and associates' work and addition to the ever-growing topic of social media in medicine, and we seek to provide additional viewpoints and suggestions in an effort to better understand the current COVID-19 landscape.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2196/31415
J Health Commun. 2022 Jan 26. 1-10

Beyond Depth and Breadth: Taking "Types" of Health Information Sought into Consideration with Cluster Analysis.

Jiyeon So, Jeongyoun Ahn, Mengfei Guan.

Online health information-seeking behavior (OHIS) has been typically operationalized in an aggregate form representing either depth (e.g., how long) or breadth (e.g., how much) of seeking, which is irrespective of what types of information are sought. Recognizing limitations of such practice, this research employs cluster analysis to reflect the content and types of health information sought in studying OHIS. Three online studies providing participants with opportunities to actually seek information about meningitis (Study 1; N = 408), Alzheimer's disease (Study 2; N = 190), and cancer (Study 3; N = 208) recorded the participants' information-seeking activities unobtrusively. Across the three studies, cluster analysis identified three common clusters representing distinctive information-seeking patterns (i.e., combinations of different types of information sought): One cluster sought information on "overview," the second one focused on "protection" information, and the third cluster sought "all" types of information provided. The relative preference for these types of information was predicted by several antecedents of information-seeking behavior proposed in Comprehensive Model of Information Seeking (CMIS) including age, fear, self- and response-efficacy. The findings demonstrate the utility of taking the actual content or types of health information sought into consideration and suggest several fruitful avenues it paves for future research on OHIS.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/10810730.2022.2029978
J Community Health. 2022 Jan 23.

The Impact of Student-Faculty Collaborative Clinics on Patients' Health Seeking Behaviors in Underserved Communities.

Rewan Abdelwahab, Sarah Abdelwahab, Maria Kaltchenko, Mie Hallman, Gina Kruse, Jacqueline T Chu, Marya J Cohen.

  The Crimson Care Collaborative (CCC) is a network of seven student-faculty clinics in the Greater Boston area that provides primary care services to underserved patient populations and social services to address social determinants of health. Promoting healthy behaviors and health-seeking habits are among the most important focuses in the field of public health and medicine. The main objective of this study is to understand the influence that the student-faculty collaborative clinic in Chelsea has on where patients seek out medical information and if that influence changes with time. To study this phenomenon, a retrospective analysis was conducted for six years of data (2013-2019). The CCC Chelsea patient survey database included 349 surveys for 229 patients. McNemar's test for paired patient survey data showed no significant difference between health information seeking preferences before and after a CCC visit ([2.783], p = 0.093). Chi-square comparing these three visit types is associated with a significant p-value of 0.025 ([Formula: see text] = 7.374). Patients who are at their second visit at CCC are more likely to report favoring reliable sources of medical information, and patients at their third visit are increasingly more likely to report first consulting reliable sources of medical information, including doctors and other healthcare providers. Fisher's test showed no significant difference between health information seeking preferences for patients who last saw a health professional less than 6 months prior to survey administration and greater than 6 months prior to survey administration at a significance level of 0.05 (p = 0.06). Our results suggest that clinic attendance may have an impact on patients' use of reputable sources of medical information in CCC Chelsea, and the positive impact that clinic attendance has on health information seeking habits may be long-standing.

Keywords:  Health behaviors; Hispanic or Latino; Information seeking behavior; Student run clinic; Trust; Trust in physicians

DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1007/s10900-021-01060-6
JMIR Public Health Surveill. 2022 Jan 20.

Analysis of official websites providing online information on COVID-19 vaccination: readability, content quality, and listing of side effects.

Andy Wai Kan Yeung, Thomas Wochele-Thoma, Fabian Eibensteiner, Elisabeth Klager, Mojca Hribersek, Emil D Parvanov, Dalibor Hrg, Sabine Völkl-Kernstock, Maria Kletecka-Pulker, Eva Schaden, Harald Willschke, Atanas G Atanasov.

BACKGROUND: Online information on COVID-19 vaccination may influence people's perception and willingness to be vaccinated. Official websites of vaccination programs have not been systematically assessed before.
OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to assess and compare the readability and content quality of Web-based information on COVID-19 vaccination posted on official/governmental websites. Furthermore, the relationship between evaluated website parameters and country vaccination rates were calculated.
METHODS: By referring to an open dataset hosted at Our World in Data, the 58 countries/regions with the highest total vaccination count as of 8th of July 2021 were identified. Together with the websites from World Health Organization (WHO) and European Commission, a total of 60 vaccination campaign websites were targeted. The "frequently asked questions" or "questions and answers" section of the websites were evaluated in terms of readability (Flesch Reading Ease score [FRE] and Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level [FKGL]), quality (Health On the Net Foundation code [HONcode] certification and Quality Evaluation Scoring Tool [QUEST]), and content stating vaccination duration of protection and potential side effects.
RESULTS: In terms of readability, the FRE score of the vaccination FAQ websites ranged between 11.2-69.5, with a mean of 40.9 (SD = 13.2). Meanwhile, the FKGL ranged between 6.5-17.6, with a mean of 12.1 (SD = 2.8). In terms of quality, only two websites were HONcode certified, and the QUEST score of the websites ranged between 7-20, with a mean of 15.3 (SD = 3.1). Half of the websites (25 out of 50) did not present a publication date or date of last update. Regarding the duration of protection offered by the vaccines, 46.0% of the websites (23 out of 50) stated that they do not know, and another 40.0% did not address it. Five side effects of the vaccinations were most frequently mentioned, namely fever/chill (85.1%), various injection site discomfort events (e.g., swelling, redness, pain) (83.0%), headache (76.6%), fatigue (70.2%), and muscle/joint pain (66.0%).
CONCLUSIONS: In general, the content quality of most of the evaluated websites was good, but HONcode certification should be considered, content should be written in more readable manner, and a publication date or date of last update should be presented.
CLINICALTRIAL:

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2196/34003
Front Pharmacol. 2021 ;12 801845

Sources of Information on Medicinal Products Among Physicians - A Survey Conducted Among Primary Care Physicians in Poland.

Magdalena Zielińska, Tomasz Hermanowski.

  Introduction: Primary care physicians need to have access to up-to-date knowledge in various fields of medicine and high-quality information sources, but little is known about the use and credibility of sources of information on medicinal products among Polish doctors. The main goal of this study was to analyze the sources of information on medicinal products among primary care physicians in Poland. Methods: A survey was conducted among 316 primary care physicians in Poland. The following information was collected: demographic data of participants, type and frequency of using data sources on medicinal products, barriers to access credible information, assessment of the credibility of the sources used, impact of a given source and other factors on prescription decisions. Results: The most frequently mentioned sources of information were medical representatives (79%), medical journals (78%) and congresses, conventions, conferences, and training (76%). The greatest difficulty in finding the latest information about medicinal products was the lack of time. The surveyed doctors considered clinical guidelines to be the most credible source of information, and this source also had the greatest impact on the choice of prescribed medicinal products. Conclusion: The study showed that clinicians consider clinical guidelines as the most credible source of information with the greatest impact on prescribing medicinal products. However, it is not the source most often mentioned by doctors for obtaining knowledge about medicinal products. There is a need to develop strategies and tools to provide physicians with credible sources of information.

Keywords:  barriers; drug information sources; information-seeking behaviours; prescribing attitudes; primary care physicians

DOI:  https://doi.org/10.3389/fphar.2021.801845
Geriatrics (Basel). 2021 Dec 23. pii: 3. [Epub ahead of print]7(1):

Concerns of Quality and Reliability of Educational Videos Focused on Frailty Syndrome on YouTube Platform.

Natalia Maria Hawryluk, Małgorzata Stompór, Ewelina Zofia Joniec.

  (1) Background: Evaluation of the quality and reliability of the frailty syndrome videos available on YouTube platform was the aim of this study. (2) Methods: The observational study included 75 videos retrieved by searching seven terms related to frailty syndrome on YouTube. The quality and reliability of the videos were measured using three different tools: quality criteria for consumer health information (DISCERN), the Global Quality Score (GQS), and the Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA). The video content was categorized according to the following characteristics: video provider, duration, view count, average daily views of the video, average daily views of a channel, channel subscribers, number of days since upload date, likes, dislikes, comments, the external webpages linked to the videos. (3) Results: The videos had a mean duration of 375 s and an average number of views of 1114. The quality of 17 videos assessed in the study was found to be high, 48-intermediate, and 10-low. The high-quality videos had the longest duration, the highest number of views, and points for the DISCERN score. The physician uploaders had the highest mean DISCERN and mean GQS scores, the highest number of views, and the longest duration but the hospital channels had the highest JAMA score. (4) Conclusions: YouTube can be a valuable source of medical information for patients and caregivers. The quality of videos mostly depends on the authorship and the source of video providers-physicians, academic, and health care-related organizations provide the best quality content based on professional medical knowledge.

Keywords:  YouTube; frailty syndrome; internet; patient education; social media

DOI:  https://doi.org/10.3390/geriatrics7010003
Plast Reconstr Surg Glob Open. 2022 Jan;10(1): e4050

Readability and Quality Assessment of Online Materials for Syndactyly Release.

Joseph Saleh, Jordan Gornitsky, Charlotte Jaloux, Emilie Bougie.

Syndactyly is one of the most common congenital hand malformations, involving an abnormal fusion of digits and with treatment varying according to its complexity. The internet has become a primary source of information for both families and patients with congenital hand anomalies. The purpose of this study was to evaluate both the readability and quality of available web content for syndactyly, using validated instruments.
Methods: Two independent reviewers conducted searches for "Syndactyly" using three of the largest online search engines: Bing, Google, and Yahoo. The top 10 websites for each search engine, along with any webpage within one click of the parent website, were analyzed. Readability was assessed using seven established quantitative tests. The quality of the web pages was analyzed using the Discern questionnaire and handbook.
Results: A total of 15 websites were included in the analysis. The average readability of all websites was equivalent to comprehension at a grade 11.3 level. The average Flesch reading ease score was 49.3 out of 100, which is considered difficult to read. Quality was assessed using Discern, a brief questionnaire consisting of 16 questions with five points attributed per question. The mean quality score using Discern was 33.3 points out of a maximum of 80 points.
Conclusions: Online materials pertaining to the treatment of syndactyly far exceed the recommended sixth-grade reading level, and lack in terms of quality and comprehensiveness of information. Health care professionals should be cognizant of the paucity of available online information and provide patients with more appropriate resources.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1097/GOX.0000000000004050
JMIR Form Res. 2022 Jan 24.

Readability of Korean-Language COVID-19 Education Materials Provided for the General Public on the National COVID-19 Portal of South Korea: Cross-Sectional Infodemiological Study.

Hana Moon, Geon Ho Lee, Yoon Jeong Cho.

BACKGROUND: The coronavirus pandemic has increased reliance on the Internet as a tool for disseminating information. However, information is useful only when the reader can comprehend the content. Prior research has shown that online health information is not always easy to read. It is not yet known whether the Korean-language online COVID-19 information is easy for the general public to read.
OBJECTIVE: This study evaluated the readability of online Korean-language COVID-19 education materials for the general public provided by the national COVID-19 portal of South Korea.
METHODS: A total of 122 publicly available COVID-19 education materials in Korean were obtained from the national COVID-19 portal of South Korea. Readability levels of the material were determined using Natmal, a readability tool for Korean text. Three documents, written at a professional level were rephrased until its readability level was changed to easy-to-read.
RESULTS: A total of 90.2% (110/122) of the material was difficult to read. The median readability grade level was at a professional level. In each of the four topics, there were few easy-to-read materials, with 41.7% (5/12) for "overview," 6.2 % (6/97) for "prevention," 0% (0/5) for "test," and 12.5% (1/8) for "treatment" (in all cases, P = .006). The median readability grade levels exceeded the recommended 9th-grade level in all four topics, with an 11th-grade level for "overview," a professional level for "prevention," and a college level for "test" and "treatment."
CONCLUSIONS: Most of the Korean-language COVID-19 online educational materials for the general public provided by the national COVID-19 portal of South Korea were difficult to read. Readability should be a key consideration in developing public health education material that plays an important role in disease prevention and health promotion.
CLINICALTRIAL:

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2196/30085
Contraception. 2022 Jan 24. pii: S0010-7824(22)00011-7. [Epub ahead of print]

Contraception Information on the Websites of Student Health Centers in the United States.

Venoo Kakar, Anagha Kulkarni, Carrie Holschuh, Anastasia Smirnova, Sepideh Modrek.

   OBJECTIVE: As University Student Health Centers are considered reputable sources of information by many young adults, we evaluate the presence of contraceptive information on their websites.
STUDY DESIGN: We used a software tool (Quantitative Measures of Online Health Information), designed for public health research to examine online information access on four broad categories of contraception and reproductive health (LARC/injectables, Contraception, Condom, Pap test) on student health center websites from all (591) public four-year universities across the U.S. between July to September 2020. Using a logistic regression model, we documented factors that are associated with information disparities.
RESULTS: Our sample consisted of 545 public universities after excluding those for which information was unavailable. In 357 (66%) of the universities in our sample, we found evidence of some information related to contraception. A one percentage point increase in the student population that are Pell grant recipients, an indicator of the proportion of low-income students enrolled, is associated with a 3%-6% (0.01<p<0.05) decrease in the odds of the presence of contraception information. A one percentage point increase in the student population that is female is associated with a 3%-6% (0.01<p<0.1) increase in the odds of the presence of contraception information. Universities that offer medical degrees have an 82% (p<0.1) higher odds of providing information for LARC/injectables on their websites. Universities that have an institutional size of more than 10,000 students are almost four times (p<0.01) as likely to have contraception information on their websites relative to those with a smaller institutional size.
CONCLUSIONS: Information on contraception on University student health center websites is associated with on a host of factors related to student demographics, institutional characteristics, and university location.
IMPLICATIONS: Examining student health center websites for contraception information can reveal important systemic gaps, especially at universities that serve non-traditional or vulnerable groups. An ongoing review is necessary to ensure equal access for all college students.

Keywords:  Contraception; Health Communication; Internet; Reproductive Health; Student Health Center

DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.contraception.2022.01.007
Aust Dent J. 2022 Jan 24.

The quality and readability of online molar incisor hypomineralisation patient education materials: a systematic analysis.

Maurice J Meade, Craig W Dreyer.

   BACKGROUND: Molar incisor hypomineralisation (MIH) is estimated to affect 14% of children worldwide. It is crucial that patients and their families have access to easily comprehensible and reliable MIH-relevant information. This study aims to determine the quality, reliability and readability of online patient education materials about MIH.
METHODS: A systematic search strategy was adopted. Five validated tools were used to assess the content of the 21 websites that satisfied inclusion/exclusion criteria. Data analyses were applied via GraphPad Prism software Version 9 (GraphPad Software, San Diego, USA).
RESULTS: Five (23.8%) websites only satisfied the criteria for understandability and two (9.5%) websites satisfied the criteria for actionability using the Patient Education Materials Assessment Tool (PEMAT). No website contained the Health on the Net (HON)Code Seal and the mean (SD) Journal of the American Medical Association number of benchmarks per website was 1.33/4 (1.02). All websites failed to reach recommended minimum readability levels. Higher PEMAT scores were associated with 'easier' readability.
CONCLUSIONS: Online patient education materials related to MIH are lacking in quality and reliability, and are too difficult for most to read easily. The authors of MIH-related online content should consider reference to quality of information tools when developing patient education materials. © 2022 Australian Dental Association.

Keywords:  health literacy; molar incisor hypomineralisation; patient education; quality of information; the internet

DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1111/adj.12899
Indian J Orthop. 2022 Jan;56(1): 73-78

Quality and Content Analysis of Carpal Tunnel Videos on YouTube.

Ahmet Mert, Bahri Bozgeyik.

   Introduction: Carpal tunnel syndrome is a disease that reduces the quality of life, and it is characterized by numbness, tingling in the fingers, and weakness in the hand, which we frequently encounter in our daily clinical practice. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the videos in terms of quality and reliability by watching the first 50 YouTube videos most relevant to the carpal tunnel in the YouTube video channel, which is often the first reference point as a source of information.
Method: Among the videos that appear after typing "carpal tunnel" in the search tab of the YouTube, we eliminated those with advertisements and those that are not in English and evaluated the top 50 most relevant videos about the carpal tunnel. A specific YouTube channel was not selected during the search; however, the most relevant videos on carpal tunnel syndrome were determined. The duration, the number of views, the number of likes, dislike numbers, upload times, and upload sources of the videos were recorded and evaluated. The content, quality, and reliability of the videos were evaluated according to the GQS, JAMA, and DISCERN scales.
Results: The average length of the 50 videos included in the study was 315.18, the average number of views was 150,977.4, and the average number of likes was 1410.86. The average number of days when the videos were uploaded to the internet was calculated as 1259.62 days. The GQS average of 50 videos included in the study was calculated as 2.7, the JAMA score average as 2.14 and the DISCERN score average as 33.62, and the video quality, content, and reliability were low. There was no statistically significant relationship between uploading sources of videos to the internet and video content, quality, and reliability (p > 0.05). The number of views, the number of days uploaded to the internet, the number of views, the number of likes and dislikes, like rates, and the video power index of the videos showed no statistically significant relationship with JAMA, DISCERN, and GQS.
Conclusion: Social media is one of the easiest methods to access information today. The high number of contents, quality, and reliability of social media videos are crucial for patients to obtain accurate information, gain awareness about diseases, and receive guidance on treatment. This study found out that the quality, content, and reliability of the existing videos on the carpal tunnel were at a low level. We propose that the videos' content and quality should be improved and become more beneficial for patients.

Keywords:  Carpal tunnel; Social media; Video quality; YouTube

DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1007/s43465-021-00430-5
Avian Dis. 2021 Dec;65(4): 541-546

Analysis of Information for Backyard Flock Owners Provided by Extension Websites.

Andrea Pietruska, Rüdiger Hauck, Brigid A McCrea, Sheena Stewart.

  Early recognition and prevention of infectious diseases in poultry flocks are essential to reduce spread from bird to bird, to prevent zoonoses, and to keep losses low. Backyard flock owners often have little knowledge about poultry health, and specialized veterinarians are difficult to find. Alternative sources for support, education, and training for noncommercial poultry are the websites of cooperative extension services offering online webinars, presentations, and programs about poultry health and diseases. The aim of this investigation was to survey 23 websites of the extension services of the top 13 states in poultry production for information on backyard poultry health. The eXtension website by the United States Cooperative Extension System was added as a nation-wide source of information. Structure, content, and presentation form were compared and analyzed. The results displayed large differences between the investigated webpages and identified opportunities for improving the sites, especially in completeness, accessibility, and presentation of the information. From 23 extension websites, 13 provided none to very limited online information and 5 websites covered almost all of the investigated content. The primary media used were articles with pictures, and only three universities added videos and webinars. Based on these results and according to the increased need for online sources about poultry health, the extension websites should provide complete and correct information or at least links to approved sources. Videos, podcasts, and webinars can increase outreach and learning achievement. This survey may help to improve the presentation and content of poultry health-related extension websites.

Keywords:  backyard poultry health; e-learning; infectious diseases; online program

DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1637/0005-2086-65.4.541
J Med Internet Res. 2022 01 27. 24(1): e30679

An Exploration of e-Cigarette-Related Search Items on YouTube: Network Analysis.

Hassan Dashtian, Dhiraj Murthy, Grace Kong.

   BACKGROUND: e-Cigarette use among youth is high, which may be due in part to pro-e-cigarette content on social media such as YouTube. YouTube is also a valuable resource for learning about e-cigarette use, trends, marketing, and e-cigarette user perceptions. However, there is a lack of understanding on how similar e-cigarette-related search items result in similar or relatively mutually exclusive search results. This study uses novel methods to evaluate the relationship between e-cigarette-related search items and results.
OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to apply network modeling and rule-based classification to characterize the relationships between e-cigarette-related search items on YouTube and gauge the level of importance of each search item as part of an e-cigarette information network on YouTube.
METHODS: We used 16 fictitious YouTube profiles to retrieve 4201 distinct videos from 18 keywords related to e-cigarettes. We used network modeling to represent the relationships between the search items. Moreover, we developed a rule-based classification approach to classify videos. We used betweenness centrality (BC) and correlations between nodes (ie, search items) to help us gain knowledge of the underlying structure of the information network.
RESULTS: By modeling search items and videos as a network, we observed that broad search items such as e-cig had the most connections to other search items, and specific search items such as cigalike had the least connections. Search items with similar words (eg, vape and vaping) and search items with similar meaning (eg, e-liquid and e-juice) yielded a high degree of connectedness. We also found that each node had 18 (SD 34.8) connections (common videos) on average. BC indicated that general search items such as electronic cigarette and vaping had high importance in the network (BC=0.00836). Our rule-based classification sorted videos into four categories: e-cigarette devices (34%-57%), cannabis vaping (16%-28%), e-liquid (14%-37%), and other (8%-22%).
CONCLUSIONS: Our findings indicate that search items on YouTube have unique relationships that vary in strength and importance. Our methods can not only be used to successfully identify the important, overlapping, and unique e-cigarette-related search items but also help determine which search items are more likely to act as a gateway to e-cigarette-related content.

Keywords:  electronic nicotine delivery systems; natural language processing; search engine; social media; social network analysis; vaping

DOI:  https://doi.org/10.2196/30679