Education and Misinformation: Exploring Ophthalmology Content on TikTok

Ritu Sampige; Emily Grace Rodgers; Austin Huang; Dagny Zhu

doi:10.1007/s40123-023-00834-6

Education and Misinformation: Exploring Ophthalmology Content on TikTok

Ophthalmol Ther. 2024 Jan;13(1):97-112. doi: 10.1007/s40123-023-00834-6. Epub 2023 Oct 24.

Authors

Ritu Sampige¹, Emily Grace Rodgers², Austin Huang³, Dagny Zhu⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Ophthalmology, Baylor College of Medicine, 1 Baylor Plaza, Houston, TX, 77030, USA. ritu.sampige@bcm.edu.
² Whitsett Vision Group, 1237 Campbell Rd., Houston, TX, 77055, USA.
³ Department of Ophthalmology, Baylor College of Medicine, 1 Baylor Plaza, Houston, TX, 77030, USA.
⁴ NVISION Eye Centers, 17980-1 Castleton Street, Rowland Heights, CA, 91748, USA.

Abstract

Introduction: With the continuous rise of social media usage, more patients are looking online for health-related information. TikTok is one of the fastest-growing video-based social media platforms, but the quality of its ophthalmologic content, at a comprehensive level, has not been previously analyzed. We aim to explore and characterize popular ophthalmology content on TikTok, including the presence of misinformation.

Methods: Between April 16 and May 22, 2023, 37 different ophthalmology-relevant hashtags were queried on TikTok, and the top 20 most-liked videos per hashtag were analyzed. The quality of educational videos was graded on understandability and actionability using the Patient Education Materials Assessment Tool for Audiovisual Materials (PEMAT-A/V). Trends in creator identity, content type, engagement metrics, misinformation presence, and TikTok verification status were also assessed.

Results: The 37 ophthalmology-related hashtags yielded 723 videos comprising 3.806 billion views. A minority of videos were created by ophthalmologists (16.9%) and eyecare providers (35.1%), while the majority were created by non-healthcare providers (55.0%). The most common types of videos identified were primarily related to personal experiences (35.8%) and education (38.0%). Amongst educational videos, mean PEMAT-A/V understandability and actionability scores were 88.1% and 50.6%, respectively. Misinformation was found in 5.4% of all videos, comprising 4.8% of all likes, 4.7% of all comments, and 11.7% of all bookmarks. Its presence was significantly correlated with content created by non-healthcare providers (p < 0.001) and received a disproportionately higher percentage of bookmarks.

Conclusions: This was the largest, most comprehensive evaluation of ophthalmologic content on TikTok. A significant portion of popular ophthalmologic content on TikTok is created by non-eyecare providers and contains misinformation. Our findings confirm the need for ophthalmologists to create more engaging, actionable, and factual educational content to combat misinformation adoption.

Keywords: Education; Misinformation; Ophthalmology; PEMAT-A/V; Social media; TikTok.