Tonsillectomy and social media: An investigative analysis of educational tonsillectomy content on TikTok

Quality assessment of health science-related short videos on TikTok: A scoping review

OBJECTIVE

The aims of this review are to clarify the current state of research in terms of assessment tools and assessors of the quality of health science-related short videos on TikTok, to identify limitations in existing research; and to provide a reference for future studies.

METHODS

A scoping review was conducted. The Cochrane Library, PubMed, MEDLINE, Web of Science, Embase, Scopus, EBSCO, CNKI, VIP, Wanfang Data, and CBM databases were searched from September 2016 to November 2022. Manual searching was also performed to identify additional eligible studies. A total of 2620 documents were initially retrieved, and 29 were ultimately included. The literature was screened and collected, and data were extracted and summarized by 2 researchers.

RESULTS

(1) The quality evaluation tools used in the 29 papers included the DISCERN, PEMAT(A/V), GQS, JAMA, HONcode, guidelines and self-developed tools. Twenty-four of the included articles used the DISCERN for quality assessment, which was the most frequently used evaluation tool. However, most of these tools were not developed to assess health science-related short videos, lacked credibility tests, and had poor applicability; therefore, the accuracy of the evaluation results might be biased. (2) The assessors of the quality of health science-related short videos on TikTok were mainly experts in related fields and medical students, with doctors (12/14) being the most common evaluators. Fifteen studies did not report the identity of the evaluators, and 12 studies did not report interrater reliability.

CONCLUSION

This scoping review found that there is a lack of specific quality assessment tools for health science-related short videos on TikTok. Second, the current quality assessors of health science-related short videos on TikTok are limited. Future research should focus on the development of reliable, scientific quality assessment tools for health science-related short videos; unifying the evaluation standards; inviting users with different backgrounds and different health literacy levels to conduct quality assessments; exploring the quality assessment of health science-related short videos on TikTok from different perspectives.

Viral voices: A multi-platform analysis of tonsillectomy on social media

OBJECTIVES

To assess the influence of social media platforms, including TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook, in shaping public perceptions about tonsillectomies and to identify the nature of the content disseminated on these platforms.

METHODS

A comprehensive analysis of 1482 relevant social media posts related to tonsillectomies was conducted across major platforms, including TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook. Content was categorized based on author, topic of the post, timeframe, and overall tone. The study also compared engagement metrics across platforms.

RESULTS

TikTok emerged as the most engaging platform with a mean of 3272.8 likes per post. Patients drove 61.6 % of the discourse, with 63.9 % of discussions being lifestyle oriented. Educational content constituted 12.5 % of the overall discourse. Sentiments towards the procedure were almost evenly split, with 29.4 % positive and 28.5 % negative; 92 % of the negative posts were authored by patients.

CONCLUSIONS

Patients were the most common social media authors, driving the conversation and a significant portion expressing negative views. Physicians, conversely, showed a low level of social media engagement. By understanding and addressing online narratives, clinicians can offer more informed patient support, debunk myths, and provide empathetic insights, ensuring positive patient experiences in the era of digital health communication.

Evaluation of the quality of thyroidectomy-related posts on a video-based social media platform

Objective

To evaluate the quality of thyroidectomy-related posts on TikTok, the fastest-growing social media platform worldwide.

Methods

Videos posted from April 2020 to September 2022 were queried on TikTok using the search terms "thyroidsurgery," "thyroidectomy," and "thyroidremoval." Two reviewers recorded thematic, demographic, and performance data of these posts. The DISCERN instrument was used to evaluate the quality and reliability of the information contained in the videos. Descriptive statistics were used to characterize post-submitter demographics and video content. Simple and multiple linear regression analyses were used to evaluate the association between DISCERN scores and video characteristics. Univariate analysis of variance was performed to compare DISCERN scores between author types.

Results

In this study, 228 TikTok videos were included which totaled over 23 million views. On average, each video accumulated more than 6000 "likes," 300 comments, and 70 shares. The average total DISCERN score was 27.46, which is deemed to be of poor overall quality. Upon multiple linear regression, video duration (β = 4.66, p < .001) and educational subject type (β = 3.97, p < .001) significantly positively predicted aggregate DISCERN scores, while journey subject type (β = -3.19, p = .006), and reassurance subject type (β = -2.52, p = .035) significantly negatively predicted aggregate DISCERN scores. Aggregate DISCERN scores varied significantly (p < .05) between author types.

Conclusion

Social media posts on TikTok about thyroidectomy are mostly of poor quality and reliability but vary by authorship, subject type, and video characteristics. Given its widespread popularity, TikTok videos may have an increasing role in shaping patient perception of thyroidectomy and may represent an opportunity to provide education.

Lay summary

TikTok posts about thyroidectomy are mostly of poor quality but vary by authorship, subject, and video characteristics. Given its popularity, TikTok videos may have a role in shaping the patient perception of thyroidectomy and may represent an opportunity to provide education.

Level of evidence

Level 4.

TikTok Influence on Rates of Tonsillectomies for Tonsil Stones

INTRODUCTION

Tonsillectomy is one of the most common otolaryngologic surgeries and is increasingly being performed for the management of tonsil stones or tonsilloliths. Incidentally, over the years, tonsilloliths have become a popular topic on the social media platform TikTok (ByteDance, Beijing, China) and we propose that this may be influencing the trends of tonsillectomies for tonsil stones.  Objectives: We aim to assess rates of outpatient visits and tonsillectomies for tonsil stones at our institution as well as analyze videos on TikTok regarding tonsil stones.

METHODS

A retrospective chart query was performed. Data including the number of patient encounters per month with a diagnosis code of tonsilloliths were collected from July 2016 to December 2021. The number of TikTok videos under the search result "tonsil stones" and the content of these videos were reviewed.

RESULTS

There were 126 patients seeking evaluation for tonsil stones with an average age of 33.4 years, and 76% were females. The number of patients who underwent a tonsillectomy for tonsil stones increased from two in the first full year of collection in 2017 to 13 in 2021. Similarly, the average number of patients presenting for tonsil stone evaluation per month increased steadily from 1.0 in 2017 to 3.3 in 2021. TikTok video content under the search result "tonsil stones" varied and the number of videos on this topic has increased in recent years.

CONCLUSION

Rates of patients seeking tonsillectomy for tonsil stones increased from 2016 to 2021 in conjunction with the rising popularity of TikTok. Given the numerous TikTok videos featuring tonsil stones, we believe that this social media platform may be influencing the number of patients seeking evaluation for tonsil stones. This data may be used to understand future influence patterns of social media posts on healthcare consumer behavior and patient care practices.