Assessment of health information in Chinese atopic dermatitis-related videos: A cross-sectional study

Abstract

Background: Atopic dermatitis (AD) is prevalent worldwide. People are increasingly obtaining health information through social videos. In China, the quality, reliability, understandability, and actionability of AD-related videos have yet to be fully studied.

Objective: This study proposed to analyze AD-related videos on Chinese video-sharing platforms.

Methods: Three keywords "" (atopic dermatitis) or "" (eczema) or "" (atopic eczema) were used on Bilibili and Douyin (Chinese version of TikTok) to retrieve videos from May 25 to November 25, 2024. Included videos' reliability was evaluated by the Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA) criteria and modified DISCERN (mDISCERN), quality was evaluated by Global Quality Scale (GQS), and understandability and actionability were evaluated by Patient Education Materials Assessment Tool (PEMAT). Spearman correlation was used to explore the correlation among different variables.

Results: 368 videos were included, and the activity on Douyin was higher than that on Bilibili (P < .001). Although Douyin's AD videos were rated higher than Bilibili's in reliability and understandability (all P < .001), neither of them was satisfactory. Medical practitioners were the main source of videos (n = 326, 88.59%), mostly conveying treatment (n = 159, 43.21%). The videos they uploaded had higher ratings in the JAMA, mDISCERN and understandability, and were also more popular (all P < .05). There were more videos on Bilibili that involved traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) (n = 81, 52.60%); however, the ratings of such videos were lower than those without TCM on any platform (all P < .001). Videos about treatment and prevention were almost the best two categories in terms of actionability (all P < .05). The number of likes, shares, comments, collections, fans, the JAMA score, and understandability were positively correlated (all P < .05).

Conclusions: The assessment of AD-related videos flooding social media is suboptimal. Videos from professionals are more reliable and should be promoted. The public should exercise caution when searching for healthcare information on video platforms.

Keywords: Digital health; chronic; eHealth; health informatics; public health; social media.

Figure 1.

The study's flowchart.

Figure 2.

Proportions of the scores of JAMA, GQS, and mDISCERN on Bilibili, Douyin, and all of them. (A) JAMA, (B) GQS, and (C) mDISCERN. *P < .005, **P < .01, ***P < .001.

Figure 3.

Distribution of AD-related videos from Bilibili, Douyin, and all of them: (A) all videos, (B) on Bilibili, and (C) on Douyin. **P < .01, ***P < .001.

Figure 4.

Number and percentage of each content on different platforms.

Figure 5.

The scores of JAMA, GQS, mDISCERN, PEMAT-understandability, and PEMAT-actionability of videos related to AD from different sources (medical practitioners or non-medical practitioners). (A) JAMA, (B) GQS, (C) mDISCERN, (D) PEMAT-understandability, and (E) PEMAT-actionability. *P < .05, ***P < .001.

Figure 6.

The scores of JAMA, GQS, mDISCERN, PEMAT-understandability, and PEMAT-actionability of videos related to AD involved TCM or not. (A) JAMA, (B) GQS, (C) mDISCERN, (D) PEMAT-understandability, and (E) PEMAT-actionability. *P < .05, ***P < .001.

Figure 7.

The scores of JAMA, GQS, mDISCERN, PEMAT-understandability, and PEMAT-actionability of videos related to AD involved TCM or not. (A) JAMA, (B) GQS, (C) mDISCERN, (D) PEMAT-understandability, and (E) PEMAT-actionability. *P < .05, **P < .01, ***P < .001. This figure was drawn using GraphPad Prism based on the median, upper, and lower limits.

Figure 8.

Correlation analysis among video variables. (A) all included videos, (B) the videos on Bilibili, and (C) the videos on Douyin. *P < .05, **P < .01, ***P < .001.