Quality and reliability of short Chinese videos related to acute pancreatitis on TikTok and Bilibili

Background: Acute pancreatitis (AP) is becoming a growing public health problem worldwide, with an increasing incidence year by year. Social media platforms such as TikTok and Bilibili are becoming increasingly popular, and they can be a source of information on AP. However, the quality of information in these videos remains unknown. Objective: The objective of this study is to assess the information quality of Chinese AP short videos shared on TikTok and Bilibili short video platforms. Methods: In April 2024, we conducted an assessment of the information quality and reliability of Chinese AP short videos (200 videos in total) from TikTok and Bilibili. This assessment was conducted using the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), Global Quality Scale (GQS), and DISCERN tools. In addition, we explored the factors affecting video quality. Results: Compared with Bilibili short videos, TikTok short videos are shorter in length but have more thumbs up, comments, favorites and shares, indicating that they are more popular. The quality of TikTok’s and Bilibili’s AP shorts is not as good as it could be, with Tiktok shorts being even worse, with median GQS scores of 1 and 2, median DISCERN scores of 34 and 42, and median JAMA scores of 2 and 1, respectively. Video duration is positively correlated with video quality, while thumbs up, comments, favorites, and shares are negatively correlated with video quality. Conclusions: The study demonstrated that short videos containing AP-related health information on Bilibili and TikTok were of poor quality, and that videos uploaded by healthcare professionals did not exhibit a significant advantage in terms of quality and reliability. Consequently, short videos providing healthcare information on TikTok and Bilibili must be meticulously evaluated for their scientific soundness before making healthcare management decisions. Overall, videos uploaded by healthcare professionals were of higher quality than those uploaded by others, but there was no significant difference in DISCERN scores.