Objective: Parents wanted to learn more about the COVID-19 vaccine for their children and make the right and safe decision during the pandemic. The rate of information acquisition about childhood diseases from YouTube is increasing among parents.
Materials and Methods: We aimed to analyze the videos on YouTube about childhood COVID-19 vaccination between the ages of 6 months and 5 years. The video research was carried out on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com) on 12 December 2022 with the search words “children”, “under 5 years”, “Covid-19”, “vaccine” and “6 month-5 year”. We used the mDISCERN, Video Power Index (VPI) and Global Quality Score (GQ-SC) for evaluating the reliability and quality of the videos. Of the 65 videos analyzed in the study, 80% (n=52) were useful. News agencies were the group (67.7%) that posted the most videos on YouTube.
Results: mDISCERN score was found 4 (3-5) in the useful group (UG) and 1 (1-3.5) in the misleading group (MG) (p=0.003). The median GQ-SC scores of the videos broadcasted by academic sources were noteworthy higher than the other sources (p=0.032). YouTube channels with more subscribers were associated with more daily views and likes (p<0.001, both).
Conclusion: Universities and academic institutions are required to prepare and broadcast videos in with scientific data and results for society and parents. Policy makers and related government departments need to use social media platforms more effectively to inform their society accurately.