TikTok Health Content: Analyzing Quality and Misinformation

TikTok Health Content: Analyzing Quality and Misinformation

In today's digital age, social media platforms like TikTok have become an integral part of our lives, providing not only entertainment and catchy dances but also a wealth of information on topics ranging from home improvement to world news. In fact, according to some reports, many young people prefer to use social media over traditional search engines like Google when searching for answers.

Health information is no exception. Hashtags like #celiactok, #diabetestok and #sinustok have millions of views, with each day resulting in countless videos about every health issue.

“There’s every kind of ‘Tok’ — that’s how the internet works,” said Rose Dimitroyannis, a third-year medical student at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine. “Small, tiny parts of the population come together and make waves.”

For people who share health concerns, finding each other can be a great thing. Unfortunately they are -; and anyone else who views health-related social media content –; You may also find misinformation. While some trends are relatively harmless, like people putting potatoes in their socks overnight to "pull out poisons," others can be dangerous, like anti-vaxxers or videos encouraging people to drink borax with their morning coffee.

There is high-quality, factual information on social media platforms like TikTok, but it can be very difficult to distinguish this from information spread by influencers that can actually be harmful.”

Christopher Roxbury, MD, surgeon and rhinology expert at UChicago Medicine

Dimitroyannis, Roxbury and other UChicago researchers recently published a new study in which they systematically analyzed health information on TikTok to see if they could identify trends in video quality -; How much misinformation is there and does it come from specific types of content creators? They found that almost half of the videos they analyzed contained non-factual information, with a large portion of misleading videos coming from non-medical influencers.

The researchers' analysis allowed them to provide advice to help lay audiences identify trustworthy health information on social media, as well as insights that could help medical professionals disseminate high-quality health information that reaches more viewers.

Immerse yourself in #sinustok

To narrow the scope of the study into a manageable analysis, researchers focused on a specific health condition and conducted their search within a single 24-hour period to limit the impact of TikTok's ever-changing algorithm. They searched TikTok with specific hashtags related to sinusitis, including #sinusitis, #sinus and #sinusinfection, cataloged the videos by uploader types, content categories and content types, and assessed the quality of the videos based on a range of metrics including understandability, actionability and reliability. These assessments relied not only on researchers' judgment but also on validated empirical tools such as the Patient Education Materials Assessment Tool for audiovisual materials.

Around 44% of the videos contained non-factual information. Videos from “non-medical influencers” –; Content creators with over 10,000 followers who do not identify themselves as medical professionals –; They made up almost half of all videos and were more likely to contain misinformation and had lower quality scores. Amateur videos were more likely to be about daily life or comedy than attempting to provide medical advice. The vast majority of healthcare professionals produced educational content and received higher ratings for video quality, factual information, and harm-benefit comparisons.

Potential Dangers of Health Misinformation

The distribution of non-factual videos about illnesses, treatments or preventive measures can not only cause confusion but also have harmful consequences for health. Some “treatments” advertised on social media are truly dangerous. There are also more subtle impacts: people may miss out on much-needed medical care because they have resorted to ineffective alternative treatments advertised online, or because their trust in medical professionals and institutions has been undermined.

“I often have patients in the clinic ask me questions about things they have seen online or on social media, and I have found that the information has often steered patients in the wrong direction,” said Roxbury, the study's senior author. "In some cases, I see patients who have already received and undergone such treatment without benefit; in rarer cases, they have suffered harm."

For example, during the time researchers were analyzing sinusitis-related TikToks, there was a trend of people shoving whole cloves of garlic up their noses to relieve nasal congestion. Blowing your nose after introducing garlic will expel more mucus, but only because the garlic causes irritation, which increases mucus production. Meanwhile, there is a risk of damaging the nasal tissue or inhaling the garlic so far up the nose that it blocks the nasal passages.

“Just to be clear – don’t put garlic up your nose,” Dimitroyannis said with a smile. "It didn't come from a bad place, but like a lot of trends, it tended to get pretty shaky."

Use social media wisely

“As a clinician, you can't deny that everyone who comes into your office has probably looked something up - and it's well within their right to try to understand their health condition,” said Dimitroyannis, the lead author of the current study. “Ultimately, both patients and physicians should understand the power of this tool, recognize the drawbacks, while recognizing that high-quality information may also be available.”

For the general public, the researchers' findings underscore the importance of critically evaluating online health information, cross-checking information with reliable sources and, when in doubt, consulting your own trusted medical professionals.

"Medical professionals are human beings; they can still say wrong things," Dimitroyannis admitted. “But overall, health professionals are publishing more useful content.” In the study data, only 15% of videos from medical professionals contained non-factual information, compared to almost 60% of videos from non-medical influencers.

Although non-medical influencers' videos generally had lower quality scores and contained more misinformation, they were still more visible because they were by far the most productive group in the study's sample. The researchers say this imbalance should prompt healthcare professionals to be more active on social media. They shared tips that medical experts could use to improve accessibility or combat existing misinformation, such as using the “Stitch” and “Duet” features on TikTok.

“If you are a health professional and have an interest in creating content, you can make a difference,” Dimitroyannis said. “Someone could watch your video and get the health information they need instead of seeing something that could harm them.”

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