Abstract
Purpose :
The increasing reliance on social media for health information prompts an investigation into the quality of uveitis-related content on TikTok. We performed a cross-sectional study to assess the content's quality and the prevalence of misinformation.
Methods :
Conducted on November 27, a TikTok search targeted uveitis-related hashtags, analyzing engagement data (likes, comments, views, shares, and favorites) for the top 100 videos per hashtag. Classifications included informative, misinformation, patient experience, or miscellaneous. Content creators were categorized as layperson, ophthalmologist, optometrist, chiropractor, and other MD/DO. Statistical tests (Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal-Wallis H) were used to compare engagement metrics between content classification and creators.
Results :
Ten uveitis-related hashtags yielded 515 videos, amassing 43,379,299 views, 2,942,809 likes, 31,178 comments, and 27,858 shares. Laypeople generated the majority (91.8%) of content, followed by optometrists (3.1%), ophthalmologists (2.2%), other MD/DOs (1.6%), and chiropractors (1.4%). The most common type of content was patient experiences (53.5%), while 9.4% of content was identified as misinformation, 11.2% as informative, and 23.9% as miscellaneous. No statistically significant differences were found in engagement metrics between misinformation and informative videos or across content creator types.
Conclusions :
Analysis reveals a substantial presence of patient experiences and notable misinformation in uveitis-related TikTok content. Laypeople generated 91.8% of content and only 5.3% of content came from Eyecare providers, demonstrating the need for more Eyecare professionals on the platform to give patients accurate information about their uveitic conditions. These results underscore the need for improved accuracy and quality in health information dissemination on social media. Efforts to address misinformation and enhance content quality should be prioritized to better serve the digital health information-seeking community.
This abstract was presented at the 2024 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Seattle, WA, May 5-9, 2024.