Can youtube be trusted as a source of quality and reliable information on COVID-19 vaccination in Italy?

Background and aim: Social media platforms are common sources of information, even more so dur- ing the COVID-19 pandemic. YouTube is the second most popular social media platform both in Italy and globally. Following criticisms regarding quality control during the pandemic, banners that would direct view- ers to official health information sources were incorporated into Youtube videos related to COVID-19. The aim of this study is to assess the reliability and information quality of YouTube videos related to COVID-19 vaccination in Italy. Methods: On March 2022, six different search queries were used to retrieve COVID-19 vaccination-related videos, resulting in the identification of 329 videos, and their characteristics were de- scribed. Two validated instruments, namely HoNCode and DISCERN, were used to assess the reliability and quality of the videos’ content. Results: Of the total number of videos, 72.0% were from non-medical or generalist channels. The most represented category was internet media (32.5%) while the less frequent was educational medical channel (7.0%). Videos from medical channels had higher reliability (p=0.002) and quality (p<0.001) than not medical channels, despite receiving fewer visualizations (p=0.004), likes (p=0.018) and comments (p<0.001). Media and news agencies sources consistently delivered lower quality content. Conclusions: These findings suggest that public health professionals and institutions should con- sider investing in social media representation to fill the gap with non-medical sources in terms of popular- ity, to provide reliable and interesting videos, and ultimately deliver health education to the general public.