TikTok misinformation and user engagement in female pelvic floor conditions

Social media platforms are increasingly utilized to distribute medical information. Our study emphasizes the need for accuracy in pelvic health education on social media and the involvement of female pelvic floor (FPF) specialists in content creation.

In this cross-sectional study, we assessed the FPF TikTok videos with the highest engagement for quality of information and misinformation and investigated the relationship between misinformation and user engagement.

We collected all TikTok videos on the US app with hashtags related to FPF conditions, including 76 on pelvic organ prolapse, 323 on urinary tract infection, 84 on overactive bladder, and 972 on incontinence. The top 20 videos for each FPF condition were selected based on highest engagement, and 74 videos total met inclusion criteria. TikTok videos were scored with the validated DISCERN instrument for quality of consumer health information and a 5-point Likert scale for misinformation. The correlation between misinformation and user engagement was assessed.

Our analysis revealed positive correlations among higher average misinformation scores and shares (r = 0.37, p < 0.001), likes (r = 0.23, p = 0.004), and overall engagement (r = 0.25, p = 0.002) in FPF TikTok videos as a group, likely driven by the #UTI category. Most TikTok videos (96%) had poor quality of information (DISCERN score < 3), and 18% of TikTok videos contained misinformation.

The poor quality and prevalence of misinformation in FPF-related TikTok videos with the highest engagement raise concerns about the propagation of nonevidence-based health information.