Evaluating the Quality of Social Media Content on Platelet-Rich Plasma for Androgenetic Alopecia and Facial Aesthetics: A Cross-Sectional Study

Purpose: Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) has gained popularity on social media recently for different forms of alopecia and facial aesthetics. Patients increasingly turn to social media for medical advice to help inform their treatment choice. This study assessed the quality of content, creator type, and engagement of content on PRP. Methods: TikTok was searched using keywords related to PRP, identifying the top 180 most-liked videos, of which 140 videos met inclusion and exclusion criteria and were analyzed for duration, views, likes, creator type, and content type. Creators were categorized as dermatologists, other physicians, non-physician health care providers (NPHCPs), or laypeople. Three reviewers assessed each video using the modified DISCERN tool. Intra-class correlation (ICC) was used to determine inter-assessor reliability. An analysis of variance (ANOVA) test was used to compare mean scores across creator categories. Results: Most videos were created by laypeople (61%) and NPHCPs (15%), with dermatologists and other physicians contributing less (11% and 12%, respectively). Most dermatologist and other physician videos were educational, while laypeople’s content was predominantly advertisements or experience-based. Overall, video quality was very poor, with median modified-DISCERN of 1. The grading scale revealed significant differences in the quality of content. Dermatologists and other physicians scored significantly higher than laypeople (p<0.004 and <0.002, respectively) and NPHCPs (p<0.04 and <0.04, respectively) on the modified-DISCERN for androgenetic alopecia. Dermatologists and other physicians scored significantly higher than laypeople (p<0.001 and <0.001, respectively) and NPHCPs (p<0.001 and <0.001, respectively) on the modified-DISCERN for facial aesthetics. Conclusions: This analysis reveals a significant need for improved regulation and quality of medical information shared on social media platforms and increased content production of physician created videos to ensure patient safety and informed decision making.