You are here

Article Text

Article menu
Download PDFPDF
Brief report
YouTube as a source of quit smoking information for people living with mental illness
  1. Ratika Sharma1,
  2. Maya Lucas2,
  3. Pauline Ford3,
  4. Carla Meurk1,4,
  5. Coral E Gartner1,5
  1. 1School of Public Health, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
  2. 2School Of Medicine, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
  3. 3School of Dentistry, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
  4. 4Centre for Youth Substance Abuse Research, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
  5. 5University of Queensland Centre for Clinical Research, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
  1. Correspondence to Dr Ratika Sharma, School of Public Health ,The University of Queensland, Public Health Building, Cnr Wyndham St and Herston Rd, Brisbane 4006, Qld, Australia; r.ratika{at}uq.edu.au

Abstract

Background YouTube is the most popular video sharing website, and is increasingly used to broadcast health information including smoking cessation advice. This study examines the quality and quantity of YouTube quit smoking videos targeted at people living with mental illness (MI).

Methods We systematically searched YouTube using selected relevant search terms. The first 50 videos obtained for each search term were screened for relevance and further videos screened through snowball sampling. Forty unique, English language videos focussing on people with MI were included in the assessment and evaluated for general video characteristics, themes, format, targeted smoking cessation and harm reduction information.

Results Most videos either discussed the problem of high smoking rates among people with MI (n=12) or smoking cessation programmes and policies at an institutional level (n=13). Only nine videos were aimed at providing quit smoking advice to this population. One video recommended higher doses of nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) for people with MI while six videos referred to possible changes in medication dosage on quitting smoking. Four videos suggested cutting down smoking for harm reduction.

Conclusions Very few YouTube videos specifically focus on the problem of high smoking rates among people with MI and even fewer provide targeted smoking cessation and harm reduction advice for this priority population. There is a need to develop comprehensive, evidence based, quit smoking video resources for smokers with a MI.

  • Harm Reduction
  • Priority/special populations
  • Media
  • Cessation
  • Disparities

https://doi.org/10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2015-052713

Statistics from Altmetric.com

    Request Permissions

    If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.

    View Full Text

    Footnotes

    • Contributors All authors contributed to the idea and design of the study. RS and ML screened and evaluated the videos. RS did the data analysis and wrote the initial draft of the paper. All authors contributed to revising and finalising the manuscript. RS is the guarantor of the paper.

    • Funding RS holds an International Postgraduate Research Scholarship and a UQ Centennial scholarship. CG holds a National Health and Medical Research Council Career Development Fellowship (GNT#1061978). CM is funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council Grant No. APP1041131.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

    • Data sharing statement The data for this study was obtained from an open access data source (YouTube). A list of the YouTube video addresses included in the analysis, search strategy, assessment criteria for the videos, general video characteristics and quality of video and sound track have been supplied as a supplementary file.