High popularity but low information quality characterizes exercise-induced fatigue short videos on Douyin

This study aims to evaluate the information quality and reliability of Exercise-Induced Fatigue short videos on Douyin and to analyze their associations with video sources, content themes, and user engagement metrics. In this cross-sectional study, user engagement data from 190 Douyin videos were extracted using the Octopus web-scraping tool. Two independent reviewers evaluated video quality and reliability using the Global Quality Scale (GQS) and the modified DISCERN instrument (mDISCERN). The findings revealed that a majority of the videos (77.37%) were created by Non-professional Individuals. Although videos from Professional Individuals or Organizations demonstrated significantly higher quality and reliability (p < 0.001), their user engagement did not significantly differ from that of non-professional videos. The most popular content theme was Clinical Manifestations, yet this category represented an area of notably lower information quality (median GQS: 2 out of 5, IQR: 1-3; p < 0.001). Overall information reliability was insufficient (median mDISCERN: 2 out of 5, IQR: 1-3), with critical deficiencies in "mentioning uncertainties" (1.05%) and "providing additional resources" (25.26%). A key finding was that video quality and reliability were significantly negatively correlated with the number of Comments (GQS: ρ = -0.24, p = 0.001; mDISCERN: ρ = -0.18, p = 0.012), while no significant correlations were observed with other engagement metrics (Likes, Favorites, or Shares). Despite the high popularity of Exercise-Induced Fatigue content on Douyin, the platform suffers from overall low information quality and structural imbalances. High-engagement content themes tend to exhibit low informational value, and the misalignment between user interaction and information reliability poses potential risks to the public information environment. Collaborative efforts are urgently needed to improve content quality and optimize the digital health information environment.