Mrs Kathryn Lim1, Dr Holly Seale1
1University Of New South Wales, Randwick, Australia
Introduction: As a communications strategy, education-entertainment has been utilised to inform, influence and shift societal and individual behaviours around reproductive health, family planning, and HIV prevention. More recently, it has been utilised as a medium to promote infection control messages with a focus on hand hygiene (HH). We aimed to explore the content, quality, viewer exposure and engagement of HH YouTube videos from an education-entertainment perspective.
Methods: A systematic search protocol was used to locate 70 videos on YouTube. The evaluation of the content was conducted using both quantitative and qualitative methods. The videos were categorised as educationally “useful” or “non-useful” using a checklist adapted for use from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s Patient Education Materials Assessment Tool.
Results: A greater percentage of the videos contained HH messages which were categorised as being educationally useful. It also observed that YouTube videos which showed dance routines were more likely to have incomplete or incorrect demonstration of HH technique. In certain examples, this affected the clarity of the video’s purpose because of the lack of distinction of the HH aspect of the dance routine, leading to potential user misinterpretation and confusion despite clear video titles stating that the content was a “HH promotion video”.
Conclusion: Recognising that a significant amount of time and effort is invested in the production of this content, it gives cause to seek to understand the effectiveness and subsequent impact of these videos on healthcare professional behaviour relating to infection control and prevention.
Biography:
Dr Holly Seale is a Senior Lecturer at UNSW Sydney and undertakes a range of social science studies focused on exploring the barriers and facilitators impacting on compliance with infection control strategies. She has a particular interest in occupational vaccination and the use of non-pharmaceutical strategies.