The Potential Health Communication Benefits of YouTube for People with Autism Spectrum Disorders

Communicating about symptoms with others has direct and indirect effects on health. This is the case when communicating with others who are experiencing similar symptoms. The advent of social media opens opportunities to benefit from communicating with others about symptoms because individuals can take their time responding to posts. However, there is a potential for negative experiences on social media. This study examines how people who identify falling on the autism spectrum disorder discuss their symptoms with others on YouTube. The study team sampled over 40 YouTube videos posted by individuals with ASD and 11,000 comments posted in response to the videos. The comments are coded into categories. First the comments are coded independently, then the research assistants meet to reconcile discrepancies in coding. Results show that 17.2% of the comments are of people sharing their symptoms. Also 21.8% of the comments are of people explaining their symptoms. For example, individuals with ASD would post comments explaining their symptoms. Later, another individual would relate to the original commenter by explaining their symptoms as well. Social support can improve a patient’s emotional well-being by promoting connectedness with other individuals. It can provide opportunities to elaborate on challenging situations. Building social support on YouTube can affect physiological processes by overturning the effects of overactivation of the hypothalamic-pituitary axis and psychologically induced immunomodulation. Social support on YouTube can also provide resources and engagement in attaining access to health services. Accordingly, YouTube is a beneficial source of health communication for people with ASD