 • 29.3%  of videos rated as pro-anorexia

 • 55.7% of videos rates as informative

 • 15% rated as others

 • Although pro-anorexia videos are less common, they were favored three times more than informative videos


prevalence of pro-anorexia videos

 • Informative content: describes the health consequences of anorexia and offers recovery advice

 • Pro-anorexia content: Promotes anorexia as a fashion and a way to be beautiful; share ways for becoming and staying anorexic 

University of California, Berkeley

 • Study investigated anorexia related misinformation on YouTube 

 • 140 videos of 11 hours content reviewed by three doctors who classified the videos as informative, pro-anorexia, or others

 • 40 most viewed videos (20 informative and 20 pro-anorexia videos) were studied to measure viewer behavior.


Goal and Methods of anorexia related misinformation on YouTube study


Syed-Abdul, Shabbir, et al. “Misleading Health-Related Information Promoted through Video-Based Social Media: Anorexia on YouTube.” Journal of Medical Internet Research, vol. 15, no. 2, 2013, https://doi.org/10.2196/jmir.2237. 

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