Session: MP21: Diversity, Equity & Inclusion: Health Equity & Outcomes II
MP21-18: Misconceptions about women with recurrent urinary tract infection in YouTube educational videos; Incongruence with AUA guidelines - health equity findings
Introduction: Stigmatization of health illness is a threat to health equity. Although case control studies demonstrate that commonly suggested hygiene practices do not decrease the incidence of urinary tract infection (UTI) in women, many patient-education sources promote this misconception, & in doing so risk stigmatizing women with UTIs as ‘dirty’ or ‘unclean’.
Objective: To document the quality, veracity, & comprehensiveness of recurrent UTI (rUTI) information on YouTube to increase health care workers’ (HCWs) awareness of UTI-related content online, & to identify deficits in understanding, clarify misconceptions & reduce stigmatization risk. Methods: High-traffic topic search terms were curated by Google Trends to extract 200, of which 45 met inclusion criteria. 5 independent reviewers used a standardized questionnaire based on the AUA rUTI guidelines to assess definition of UTI, marketing content, prophylaxis/prevention strategies, & antibiotic use/stewardship. Statistics: Fleiss kappa (K) assessed Inter-rater reliability (IRR). Results: High variability and incongruency from guideline definitions of UTI (Table 1); the most common prophylactic strategy discussed Cranberry; only 55% discussed increasing fluid intake. Table 2 illustrates commonly recommended hygiene practices: including front to back wiping (25%) K=0.71. 33% promoted other non-evidence-based hygiene practices including expression of uncleanliness of women. Conclusions: Misleading information for women seeking education on UTI through YouTube is high. Misinformation on hygiene practices is unproductive, & several videos captured HCWs claiming that rUTI results from poor female hygiene practices, creating a health equity concern for women experiencing UTIs. These findings alert HCWs on the need to provide evidence-based recommendations by consulting practice guidelines, such as those provided by the AUA. SOURCE OF Funding: n/a
