YouTube as a Source of Information on COVID-19 Vaccination and Fertility: A Content Analysis

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION: Social media claims of COVID-19 vaccination causing infertility has contributed to vaccine hesitancy among reproductive-aged women. YouTube is the most extensively used video sharing platform, delivering information to 2.3 billion users. We conducted a cross-sectional study to assess the accuracy, content, and viewership of YouTube videos on COVID-19 vaccines and fertility. METHODS: YouTube videos identified using the search term 'COVID vaccine fertility' were classified independently by three professionals. Five-point ordinal scales were used to grade reliability and quality. Information regarding source of upload, video content in six pre-defined domains, reasons for vaccine hesitancy in eight pre-defined domains, and various video-viewer interaction metrics were collected. RESULTS: Of the 112 videos with cumulative duration of 17.2 hours and viewership of approximately 3.5 million, 16 (14.41%) were from government/professional societies, 41 (36.94%) were from hospitals, 36 (32.43 %) were from News/Commercial organizations, and 18 (16.22%) were from individual users. Videos from government/professional societies were rated more likely to be useful and had the highest quality scores. However, individual accounts had the highest viewership at a median of 286.5 views per day compared to 28.8 views per day for government videos (P<.05). Among videos from government/professional societies, 62.50% reported on pregnancy related complications. In contrast, among individual videos, 66.67% reported on COVID-19 vaccine clinical trials. Among all videos, the most reported reason for vaccine hesitancy were claims of antibodies disrupting placentation. CONCLUSION: Social media websites such as YouTube may provide an accessible platform for disseminating information to reproductive-aged women contemplating COVID-19 vaccination.