A new study published in the journal Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery sheds light on the quality of sinusitis-related videos on TikTok.
This alarming trend highlights the potential risks associated with sourcing health advice from unverified content on social media.
This has prompted researchers to systematically evaluate the quality of sinusitis-related information shared on TikTok.
The researchers conducted a comprehensive search using popular hashtags like #sinus, #sinusitis, and #sinusinfection on TikTok, from January 29 to 30, 2023.
Videos from medical professionals had the highest proportion of factual content at an impressive 84.4%, significantly higher than other groups.
In contrast, only 45.3% of videos posted by non-medical influencers and 53.6% from lay individuals contained factual information.
This significant disparity underscores the risk associated with non-expert health advice prevalent on social media platforms.
The spread of inaccurate medical videos on social media can have serious consequences.
An investigation into the caliber of sinusitis-related TikTok videos has been conducted and published in the journal Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery. Researchers discovered that almost half of these videos—which are mostly shared by non-medical influencers—contain false or misleading information. The possible hazards of getting health advice from unreliable social media content are brought to light by this concerning trend.
Approximately one in seven adults in the US suffer from sinusitis, an inflammation of the sinuses that results in an annual medical expense of about $5.08 billion. The illness can have a serious negative influence on one’s quality of life and cause symptoms like facial pain and congestion in the nose. It can be brought on by a number of things, such as allergies and infections. Even with its widespread use, a lot of people choose to treat themselves with the help of internet resources.
In the past, websites like Twitter have come under fire for disseminating false information about health. Its influence is indisputable as TikTok’s user base continues to grow at an exponential rate—it is predicted to reach 2.2 billion by 2027. Because of the platform’s captivating short-form video format, harmful misinformation as well as helpful knowledge can easily proliferate. This has led scientists to assess the caliber of information shared on TikTok about sinusitis in a methodical manner.
Third-year medical student Rose Dimitroyannis of the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine explained, “Every type of ‘Tok’ exists – that’s just how the internet works.”. Small, discrete groups within the population connect with one another and spread. “.
“Surgical and rhinology experts at UChicago Medicine Christopher Roxbury said, ‘There is high-quality and factual information out there on social media platforms like TikTok, but it may be very difficult to distinguish this from information disseminated by influencers that can actually be harmful.”.
Using well-known hashtags such as sinus, sinusitis, and sinusinfection, the researchers searched TikTok extensively between January 29 and January 30, 2023. Their objective was to gather a wide range of information by screening videos that offered English-language information about sinusitis. After duplicates and superfluous content were eliminated, 220 of the 465 videos that were originally discovered satisfied the inclusion criteria.
Afterwards, the videos’ content was divided into categories like humor, lifestyle, marketing, and medical advice and assessed for both factual accuracy and educational value. The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) criteria for accuracy and reliability, as well as a number of other tools, were used by the researchers to evaluate the video quality for understandability and actionability.
Of all the videos, only 55.5% were classified as factual, which means that almost half had false or misleading information. A remarkable 84.4% of the content in videos produced by medical professionals was factual, which is a much higher percentage than that of other audiences. By comparison, factual information was only included in 45.3% of videos posted by non-medical influencers and 53.6% of videos from laypeople. This notable discrepancy highlights the dangers of following amateurish health advice that is frequently found on social media sites.
In addition, the study used the Global Quality Scale (GQS), which has scores ranging from 1 to 5, to evaluate the videos’ overall quality. A GQS score of 3.76, or “good quality,” was averaged for videos from medical professionals; by contrast, videos from laypeople and non-medical influencers received lower scores of 2.47 and 2.38. These ratings imply that information from medical specialists is typically more useful and well-presented, in addition to being more accurate.
Further evidence that there may not always be a correlation between popularity on TikTok and informational quality comes from the observation that videos with more views also tended to have lower quality scores.
There could be major repercussions if false medical videos proliferate on social media. Such false information has the potential to not only cause confusion but also to encourage dangerous “treatments” that endanger people’s health. Additionally, people may choose to forgo essential medical care in favor of unproven substitutes promoted online.
Senior author of the study Roxbury said, “I find that a lot of the time the information has steered patients in the wrong direction. I frequently have patients in the clinic asking me questions about things they saw online or on social media.”. “I observe patients who have previously sought out and received this kind of care, sometimes with no positive outcome and other times with negative outcomes. “.
The practice of people putting whole cloves of garlic into their noses to clear congestion became popular on TikTok, and researchers noticed this trend during the study period. Although blowing the nose using this technique might seem to clear mucus at first, it actually has the opposite effect. In contrast to providing true relief, the irritation caused by the garlic irritates the nasal lining, increasing mucus production. There are a lot of risks associated with this practice, such as the possibility of damaging nasal tissues and the risk of breathing garlic deep into the nasal passages.
Just to be clear, Dimitroyannis advised against putting garlic in one’s nose. It wasn’t a bad idea at first, but like many trends, it eventually became very dangerous. “.
In order to successfully combat misinformation going forward, the study highlights the necessity for medical professionals to take a more active part in content creation on websites like TikTok. According to the research, medical professionals who use social media have the ability to counter false information with accurate, high-quality content.
Health care professionals who are interested in creating content “may make a difference,” according to Dimitroyannis. “Instead of viewing something that could harm them, someone could watch your video and obtain the necessary health information. “.
