Current Status of Pharmacist-run Personal Broadcasting and Pharmacists’ Perceptions on Self-regulation by Korean Pharmaceutical Association

Abstract

With the rapid penetration of internet-based communication into all industries, YouTube®, a video-sharing platform, has come to be widely used in the healthcare field. This study aims to investigate the current status of pharmacist-run personal broadcast (PRPB) in Korea and explore the underlying perceptions held by pharmacists. YouTube searches made from May to June 2020 and June 2022 were analyzed, followed by a cross-sectional questionnaire survey during July 2020. A 13-item questionnaire was distributed via social media channels to recruit pharmacists using the convenience sampling method. Currently, there are a total of 91 PRPB channels on YouTube, most of which were started after 2019. Of the total 1267 contents, health functional foods (32.4%) and over the counter products (29.3%) had the highest proportions. Among the 218 respondents of the questionnaire survey, 49.1% were working in community pharmacies, and only 2.8% had PRPB experience. They showed higher positive response (42.2%) than negative (33.5%) for the public's exposure to PRPB, and 77.5% of the respondents perceived that social influence of PRPB will grow bigger. Their concerns about PRPB were mainly disclosure of biased information and possibility to lead to product purchase (75.2%) and spreading unverified information (70.2%). In addition, 70.6% of the respondents agreed with the necessity of self-regulation of PRPB by the Korean Pharmaceutical Association and chose the operation of a civil petition counter to report the transmission of false or incorrect information on YouTube (62.8%) and composition of deliberation committee and periodic monitoring (53.2%) as regulatory methods. Perceived necessity of self-regulation was significantly higher in the above-50s age group than in the under-40s group (p<0.05). Pharmacists interested in PRPB should deliver accurate information as drug information providers and abide by professional ethics and public responsibility.