An examination of the quality of kidney stone information on YouTube and TikTok

Social media is increasingly consulted by patients for health-related information. The quality of this information is unknown and unregulated. This study aimed to investigate the quality of kidney stones information on two popular video platforms, YouTube and TikTok, and examine factors related to its quality. A search using keywords of "kidney stones" alongside "information, prevention, treatment" was used across YouTube and TikTok. The top 50 videos on each platform were rated by 4 independent reviewers on: general information, epidemiology, symptoms/presentation, treatment, and prevention. The American Urological Association's kidney stone curriculum was utilised as the benchmark for quality. The total number of views across the 100 videos was over 46 million. Overall, 91% of videos were educational in terms of genre. Misinformation was present in 34% of TikTok and 2% of YouTube videos. YouTube received significantly higher quality ratings across all parameters bar prevention (z's>-4.79 p's < 0.001); however, less than 50% of YouTube videos were rated as good quality. There was no association between quality and the number of likes or views across platforms (p's > 0.3). The quality of information presented across platforms was very variable with over half of videos considered poor quality. Given the high usage of social media as a source of health information it is important that healthcare providers and the general public are aware of the limits of information available on both platforms and continued efforts are made to develop high quality videos suitable for patient consumption.