Highlights
- •Videos uploaded by consumers represent more than half of the most popular videos in the sample.
- •Professional/government derived videos accounted for fewer views.
- •These videos vary in terms of content.
Abstract
Background
Proper education about food safety and hand hygiene helps to reduce the risk of exposure
to Escherichia coli associated disease. The purpose of this study was to describe the 100 most widely
viewed YouTube videos on the subject of E. coli to determine what consumers are viewing related to the hazards of, and reducing risk
of exposure to, bacteria such as E. coli.
Methods
The search term was conducted using the keywords “E. coli.” The 100 videos with the top view counts were included in this study. The sampling
frame for this study included only videos that were in English. The source of the
upload of each video was determined to be one of the following: (1) consumer, (2)
professional (MD, RN)/government, (3) any news (television-based, internet-based,
or print/radio). Content categories were created using a fact sheet from the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention.
Results
Videos uploaded by a news source tended to have been uploaded more recently (2015–2018)
compared to other sources (p < 0.001). Videos uploaded by consumers or news sources
tended to have more views than professional/government-uploaded videos (p = 0.044).
Videos uploaded by news sources were more likely to mention a specific outbreak (p < 0.001),
statistics (p = 0.004), and transmission via raw meat (p = 0.036), feces (p = 0.006),
vegetables or produce (p = 0.006), and processing techniques (p = 0.005).
Conclusions
YouTube videos on the topic were widely divergent, and varied in content, emphasizing
different aspects of concern over hazards associated with E. coli. Consumer sources, rather than experts, were the most common source of upload of the
most highly viewed videos. Government agencies, which collect and analyze public health
data, do not appear to use YouTube effectively to disseminate information. This underscores
the need for media to work with government agencies to provide accurate, timely information
to the public.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: February 06, 2019
Accepted:
January 9,
2019
Received in revised form:
January 8,
2019
Received:
December 3,
2018
Identification
Copyright
© 2019 Australasian College for Infection Prevention and Control. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
