Quality evaluation of information about sudden sensorineural hearing loss on TikTok videos: Cross-sectional study

Sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSNHL) has increasingly become a critical public health concern worldwide, with limited access to health knowledge among Chinese patients. TikTok is considered one of the most popular short-video platforms for health education information in China. However, there remains a lack of scientific investigation and evaluation for the quality of these videos.

The study aimed to examine the quality and content coverage of the short videos about SSNHL on TikTok as one of the most significant information sources for Chinese.

We retrieved 215 TikTok videos by comprehensive ranking with the Chinese search term "SSNHL" on 1 June 2025. Video sources, audience engagement, and video content were extracted. Two independent researchers evaluated the information of each video using m-DISCERN, Global Quality Score (GQS), Goobie's coding scheme, Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), and Video Information and Quality Index (VIQI). Besides, spearman correlation analysis was conducted.

A total of 174 TikTok videos were ultimately included, 157 from healthcare, and 17 from nonhealthcare. The median video lengths were 50 s (healthcare) and 70 s (nonhealthcare). Videos from healthcare source gained higher overall audience engagement except comments. The majority of the video style was medical questions and answers (51.7%), while the most common video background was medical scenario (90.3%). Video uploaders were predominantly from first-tier cities (45.4%). Videos from healthcare showed more scores on the median m-DISCERN, GQS, JAMA, and VIQI than videos from nonhealthcare. The GQS and VIQI score positively correlated with metrics such as likes, shares and collections (p < .001), but the correlation was slight in most cases.

Videos from healthcare performed better than nonhealthcare, at the video quality of SSNHL-related knowledge. However, the overall quality and content coverage from both sources were unsatisfying. Despite some limited positive correlations between video quality and audience engagement, it suggests that individuals should be vigilant when discerning health-related information on TikTok.