Quality and Engagement Metrics of Short Versus Long-Form Videos on Atrial Fibrillation

Background Many patients with AF seek online resources for information to understand their condition and treatments.Objective To compare the quality and audience engagement of short- and long-form videos on AF and to determine the correlation between uploader type and audience engagement.Design Cross-sectional studySetting This study was conducted at the Brody School of Medicine of East Carolina University and involved collecting videos using the institution’s resources.Method The research team collected 22 short- and 22 long-form videos from YouTube uploaded since July 2021-October 2024. Two cardiology fellows rated videos using PEMAT to assess viewers’ understandability and actionability and GQS to determine the overall quality of videos. Quality scores and audience engagement were compared by video duration and uploader type.Result The median understandability, actionability and GQS raw scores for shorts were 7 (5,8; maximum: 13), 0 (0,1 maximum: 4) and 2 (1,3 maximum: 5) whereas they were 6.5 (4, 10), 0 (0,0) and 3 (1,4) for regular videos, indicating low understandability, actionability and overall quality.Conclusions We found no significant associations between video duration and quality, or between uploader type and audience engagement, indicating that neither the format nor the uploader type affects the educational content provided in online videos.