TikTok in Transgender Health: Is It Really Useful for Plastic Surgeons?

Area of Science:

• Social media impact on healthcare
• Transgender and nonbinary health communication
• Plastic surgery patient education

Background:

• The hashtag #trans garnered over 6 billion TikTok views in 2020, highlighting the platform's reach.
• Transgender and nonbinary (TGNB) individuals increasingly use social media for health information.
• Understanding engagement with gender-affirming surgery (GAS) content is crucial for effective patient communication.

Purpose of the Study:

• To analyze TikTok user engagement with gender-affirming surgery (GAS) content.
• To compare engagement across different content creators (TGNB patients, plastic surgeons, significant others).
• To identify content types that drive user interaction on TikTok.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of top 14 GAS hashtags and top 10 videos per hashtag on TikTok (August-September 2021).
• Extraction of engagement metrics: shares, likes, and comments.
• Qualitative assessment of video comments, content, and creator type.

Main Results:

• Transmasculine top surgery was the most frequent GAS topic. Videos by patients' significant others (PSO) received significantly more shares and fewer negative comments than those by patients or surgeons.
• Videos showcasing postoperative care/results achieved significantly higher likes compared to educational or awareness/pride content.
• Patient-posted videos constituted the majority (74.3%) of analyzed content.

Conclusions:

• TikTok users show higher engagement with PSO-posted content on postoperative outcomes.
• Educational and TGNB awareness/pride content receives less engagement compared to outcome-focused videos.
• Tailoring TikTok content strategies may improve engagement with prospective TGNB patients and their support networks.