DermTok: How TikTok Is Changing the Landscape of Dermatology Patient Education

TikTok gives its users a platform to share and view short videos on a wide range of topics, including dermatology related topics. This project sought to analyze the sources of TikTok videos associated with the treatment of four dermatologic conditions and to report the percentage of videos posted by board-certified dermatologists.

On July 16th, 2021, an investigator input the following hashtags into the TikTok application’s search bar: #AcneTreatment, #EczemaTreatment, #PsoriasisTreatment, and #RosaceaTreatment. After the total of 400 videos was obtained, the videos were then classified into the following categories based on the user posting the video: dermatologist, dermatology resident, non-dermatologist physician, physician assistant, nurse practitioner, registered nurse, esthetician, patient, beauty blogger, and other. Videos that were not in English, paid advertisements or by a business page, and/or unrelated to treatment or education of a dermatologic condition were excluded.

The top posters of all the videos analyzed were patients (40.8%) followed by dermatologists (16.8%). Of all the videos analyzed, 37.3% were posted by licensed professionals and the remaining 62.7% were posted by non-licensed posters. The licensed professionals mostly posted about acne (52.4%) out of the four conditions. Non-professional posters mostly posted about psoriasis (86.7%) and eczema (66.7%) out of the four conditions.

There is a need for more dermatologist-created, educational content on TikTok and other platforms to increase the likelihood that users will interact with dermatologic content posted by board-certified dermatologists. J Drugs Dermatol. 2023;22(3): doi:10.36849/JDD.6676.