Quality and reliability of information about blood glucose monitoring on TikTok and Bilibili: A cross-sectional analysis

Monitoring blood glucose is essential for diabetes management, and many patients use short-video platforms to learn capillary blood glucose testing. We evaluated whether previously reported concerns about online health information also apply to this narrower procedural task and compared high-ranking videos on TikTok/Douyin and Bilibili. We included 192 videos (TikTok, n = 100; Bilibili, n = 92) and extracted duration, engagement metrics, uploader type, and video category. Two trained nursing reviewers assessed general educational quality and reliability-related characteristics using the Global Quality Score (GQS) and modified DISCERN (mDISCERN). Between-platform comparisons used Mann–Whitney U tests or Pearson’s chi-square tests, with standardized Mann–Whitney effect sizes; Spearman correlations examined associations with quality scores. TikTok videos received more likes, platform-specific saving actions, comments, and shares and were shorter than Bilibili videos (all P < 0.001; r = 0.315–0.403). TikTok also had higher proportions of accounts classified as professional uploaders (63.0% vs 35.9%, P < 0.001) and popular-science videos (53.0% vs 32.6%, P = 0.004). However, GQS and mDISCERN scores did not differ significantly between platforms (GQS, P = 0.246; mDISCERN, P = 0.072). Coverage of four prespecified procedural elements was incomplete on both platforms, with guidance on first-drop discard, alcohol drying, and post-puncture pressing time appearing in only a minority of videos. TikTok achieved substantially greater engagement, but popularity did not indicate significantly better educational quality or reliability-related characteristics. Standardized, professionally developed procedural videos may improve online diabetes self-management guidance.