A new study published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (JMIR) has found that a majority of YouTube videos about medical cannabis contain unreliable or misleading information, despite the platform’s efforts to promote credible health sources.
The study, titled “Misinformation About Medical Cannabis in YouTube Videos: Systematic Review,” conducted by Shivank Khare, Simon Erridge, Swathikan Chidambaram, and Mikael Hans Sodergren from the United Kingdom, evaluated the quality and reliability of information about medical cannabis on YouTube and examined how video popularity relates to content quality.
After systematically reviewing 800 YouTube videos on medical cannabis, and analysing 516 after applying exclusion criteria. Using Google Trends, they identified relevant search terms and categorised videos into three groups: nonmedical educational channels, medical education channels, and independent users.
The findings revealed that independent creators who are often non-experts dominated the space, accounting for 84.3 per cent (435 videos). In contrast, only 12.2 per cent (63 videos) were produced by medical education channels.
READ: How content creators use AI to misinform young children on YouTube – Report
Despite their limited presence, the videos collectively reached 119 million views, underscoring YouTube’s growing influence as a source of health information. However, the study highlighted major concerns about credibility and accuracy.
Using two established evaluation tools, the DISCERN grade and the Health on the Net (HON) code, the researchers assessed each video’s accuracy, transparency, and overall trustworthiness. The results revealed low average scores across all categories.
Non-medical educational channels scored the highest in reliability (DISCERN score of 47.8), while independent users scored the lowest (33.5). However, popularity did not always align with quality.
The most-viewed videos were not necessarily the most accurate. In fact, medical experts videos averaged just 5,721 views, compared to the hundreds of thousands drawn by nonmedical creators.
Interestingly, while medical education sources were more reliable than independent creators, they still performed below non-medical educational channels, many of which were linked to news organisations.
The study suggests that this could be because medical sources often use technical language and longer, lecture-style formats better suited to academic audiences. In contrast, nonmedical creators tend to use simpler language, catchy visuals, and storytelling, making their content more relatable and shareable.
READ ALSO: YouTube creators using AI misinformation to target black celebrities
“YouTube is a key source of information on medical cannabis, but the credibility of videos varies widely. Independent users attract the highest viewers but have reduced reliability according to the DISCERN and HON scores,” the researchers concluded.
The authors warned that the dominance of less reliable creators could fuel health misinformation, especially on sensitive topics like cannabis use. They recommended stronger content moderation and better promotion of verified health sources to ensure accurate, evidence-based information reaches a wider audience.
With 2.5 billion monthly users, YouTube remains one of the world’s largest health information platforms but as this study shows, not all viral content should be trusted.
Seasoned fact-checker and researcher Fatimah Quadri has written numerous fact-checks, explainers, and media literacy pieces for The FactCheckHub in an effort to combat information disorder. She can be reached at sunmibola_q on X or fquadri@icirnigeria.org.
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