YouTube Looks for Health-Related Topics to Include User Testimonials

When consumers enter keywords connected to health into YouTube, patient personal narratives begin to appear.
SIA Team
October 2, 2022

To better serve users searching for information on health-related topics, YouTube has added a section devoted to patient testimonials.

“Starting this week, when you search for health topics and questions related to certain conditions, you’ll see a shelf showing videos of personal stories relevant to the topic,” YouTube said on their recent blog on September 28, 2022.

In a statement, YouTube claims that this adjustment is being made in response to how people look for videos about medical issues.

“But we also saw another pattern in the data. Many times, people aren’t coming to YouTube with a health question at all. Instead, they come with a human question: how do I live with this?,” YouTube said.

According to YouTube search trends, not everyone who has a chronic health problem visits the website looking for knowledge. They seek out the assistance of others who are experiencing the same thing.

“They were looking for support. How did other people live with this? Does it ever get better? How do I support my loved one through this? What meaning can I make of it? And they were all getting at the same human element: we help each other get through things. The need for connection and belonging is a universal one, and that’s proven with data – the science of peer support shows that social connectedness positively impacts both physical and mental health,” YouTube said.