Chinese immigrants may dismiss pathological decline of dementia as part of normal aging (Woo and Mehta, Reference Woo and Mehta2017). While the internet may be a source of health information for Chinese immigrants, the quality of online dementia information was lower in Chinese than in English (Tsiang and Woo, Reference Tsiang and Woo2017). Recent studies have demonstrated feasibility of YouTube videos in disseminating health information to the Chinese-speaking general public (Lam et al., Reference Lam, Tsiang and Woo2017; Zheng and Woo, Reference Zheng and Woo2017). Therefore, we evaluated the performance of YouTube in targeting Chinese-speaking individuals in Britain who are in the high risk age group (e.g. aged 55 years and above) of developing dementia.
A board-certified psychiatrist was invited by a Chinese television station for two educational talk shows in Cantonese, which covered topics centered on dementia background, management, and prevention. The real-time recording was then uploaded to YouTube as two 25-min videos in a YouTube channel. The sample of this study included viewers from Britain who have watched the videos during the first four-year period. Using YouTube Analytics, the recorded parameters included the number of views, watch time, age and gender of viewers, and average view duration (avd).
Between January 2014 and January 2018, the YouTube videos recorded 332 views and a total watch time of 3,007 min. A total of 139 of our viewers were men (41.9%) and 193 (58.1%) were women. Most people viewed the contents using wireless devices, including mobile phones (44.3%, n = 147) and tablets (33.4%, n = 111). Among the 332 viewers, 86 (25.9%) were 65 years old or above, 90 (27.1%) were between 55 and 64 years of age, 46 (13.9%) were between 45 and 54 years of age, and 110 (33.1%) were 44 years old or younger.
The targeted age group at risk of developing dementia (aged 55 years and above) accounted for 53.0% (n = 176) of the total viewers. Viewers who were between 55 and 64 years old had an avd of 11.67 min, which was 28.8% longer than the overall avd of 9.06 min.
To our knowledge, there are no reports of utilizing YouTube to disseminate dementia knowledge to Chinese-speaking individuals in Britain. Most British Chinese-speaking viewers watched the videos using wireless devices. Also, YouTube was able to outreach effectively to the targeted age group of viewers aged 55 years and above. Furthermore, older viewers had a longer avd, demonstrating this group's interest in dementia information. However, extra studies are required to investigate whether YouTube videos could modify dementia stigma among Chinese immigrants in Britain (Zheng et al., Reference Zheng, Chung and Woo2016). Nevertheless, these results suggest that YouTube is an attractive format for disseminating dementia educational contents to older Chinese-speaking individuals in Britain. Based on the findings of the study, future research should examine how best to utilize YouTube and wireless devices to outreach older Chinese immigrants.
Conflict of interest
None.
