An Analysis of Pediatric Ophthalmology Content on TikTok

Abstract

Purpose: To assess pediatric ophthalmology-related information on TikTok (ByteDance).

Methods: The 12 most commonly searched terms from the American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus website were queried as TikTok hashtags. The top 20 videos for each hashtag were analyzed for views, likes, comments, saves, shares, author status and gender, content, and engagement level ratio (ELR). Subanalysis of the educational videos for quality, understandability and actionability, and medical accuracy using the modified DISCERN (mDISCERN), Patient Education Materials Assessment Tool (PEMAT), and modified Medical Information and Content Index (mMICI) was performed.

Results: Analysis of 222 videos revealed a cumulative 191,337,973 views. Patients/families created the most videos (60.4%), followed by optometrists (14.4%), other (laypeople/unknown) (9.0%), ophthalmologists (7.7%), non-ophthalmology physicians (4.5%), and nurses (4.1%). Content was predominantly patient experience (56.8%), followed by educational (25.2%), humor (11.7%), self-promotional (3.6%), procedures (0.9%), other (0.9%), advertisements (0.5%), and career (0.5%). Educational videos had a lower ELR than humorous (3.3 vs 8.2, P < .001) and patient experience (3.3 vs 5.3, P < .001) videos, but more saves than patient experience videos (74 vs 25, P = .009). The mDISCERN scores were greater for videos authored by ophthalmologists (3, P < .001) and optometrists (2.5, P < .001) compared to lay-people (1.5). Ophthalmologist PEMAT understandability scores were greater than non-ophthalmology providers' (95.5% vs 67.4%, P = .002). There was no difference in PEMAT actionability (P = .743) or mMICI scores among the author subgroups (P = .206).

Conclusions: Pediatric ophthalmology content on Tik-Tok ranges in quality and understandability. Additional research is needed to help promote posts created by eyecare providers to ensure evidence-based medical content reaches pediatric patients and their families. [J Pediatr Ophthalmol Strabismus. 2024;61(2):90-97.].