A Review and Quality Assessment of TikTok Videos for Burn Education

Social media platforms can serve as a readily accessible tool for burn education, potentially reducing the incidence and severity of burn injuries. Previous studies have investigated the quality of online burn education videos on platforms such as YouTube. Here, we review the quality of such videos on TikTok, a newer and rapidly growing platform. TikTok was searched for English videos using 29 keywords (hashtags) such as #burn, #education, #prevention, and #management. The first 30 videos per hashtag were screened. Videos were categorized by content and creator. Two independent reviewers assessed the quality of the included videos using the Global Quality Scale (GQS). Metrics such as views, commentary, and likes were also examined. Of 535 screened videos, 72 met inclusion criteria. 47% (n = 34) were on management, 33% (n = 31) education, and 10% (n = 7) prevention. Only 6% (n = 4) cited sources. The median GQS score was 3.0 (IQR: 2.0-3.0, max 4.0). 50% (n = 36) were made by healthcare professionals with a median GQS score of 3.0 (IQR: 2.0-3.0, max 4.0) compared to 2.0 (IQR: 2.0-3.0, max 4.0) in nonhealthcare professionals (n = 36). Viewership varied from 41 to 4.2 million views. Overall, there is a lack of high-quality educational information on TikTok. This rapidly expanding and dynamic platform may provide an opportunity to direct individuals to higher quality resources.