The quality and reliability of short videos about liver transplantation and lung transplantation on BiliBili and TikTok: cross-sectional study

Abstract Liver and lung transplantation are life-saving treatments for end-stage organ failure. While short-video platforms have become crucial health information sources, the educational quality and reliability of transplantation-related content remains uncertain. This cross-sectional study evaluated 416 liver (223) and lung (193) transplantation-related videos from TikTok and Bilibili in China (December 2025) using four validated instruments: Global Quality Score (GQS), modified DISCERN (mDISCERN), Medical Quality Video Evaluation Tool (MQ-VET), and Video Information and Quality Index (VIQI). Overall content quality was moderate to low. Videos by medical practitioners achieved statistically significantly higher quality scores than non-medical videos, though absolute differences were modest. TikTok videos achieved higher overall quality scores, while Bilibili videos showed better content reliability. Notably, user engagement metrics were inversely associated with medical professional quality scores in liver transplantation videos (a correlational observation that does not imply causation), with no such association in lung transplantation content. These findings, situated within the unique regulatory and content-governance environment of the Chinese digital ecosystem, highlight the need to optimize platform content governance and promote specialist-led educational content to improve the overall educational quality of transplantation-related short videos.