Ever thought that YouTube, a place for tonnes of millions of videos, would be helpful in saving people's lives? A new research shows that social media outlets such as YouTube can potentially save human lives by showing correct procedural lifesaving methods.
According to the researchers, there are limited videos on cardiopulmonary resuscitation and basic life support on YouTube that are consistent with current health guidelines. If a person knows the correct way to perform CPR and basic life support, survival rates of people suffering from life-threatening medical emergencies can be significantly improved.
For the study, emergency medicine specialists in Turkey assessed educational videos uploaded on YouTube in the past three years. They concentrated specifically on search terms 'CPR,' 'cardiopulmonary resuscitation,' 'BLS' or 'basic life support.'
The findings stated that most of the thousands of videos produced by these search results were immaterial, recorded in languages other than English and had advertisements. Researcher then excluded many of these videos and only analyzed 209 YouTube videos.
They found that just 11.5 percent of the videos examined provided instructions that were consistent with the 2010 CPR guidelines.
"Although well-designed videos can create awareness and be useful as tools in training, they can never replace hands-on instruction from a properly qualified health practitioner," said Paul Middleton, an associate professor and Fellow of the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine (ACEM) and Chair of the Australian Resuscitation Council NSW.
"People wanting to learn CPR and BLS skills should seek out a properly accredited training course," Middleton added.
The findings are published in the journal Emergency Medicine Australasia.
