Quality Assessment of Health Information on Alcohol-Associated Liver Disease on TikTok, United States, 2024

Alcohol-associated liver disease (AALD) is a leading cause of liver disease. Alcohol use disorder is a growing public health problem in the United States. TikTok is a growing source of public health information; such information is not peer reviewed and often does not meet scientific standards. We assessed the quality of AALD information on TikTok.

We conducted a retrospective observational study of TikTok videos obtained on March 8, 2024, by searching the phrase "alcohol-associated liver disease." We analyzed video characteristics, engagement, and content. Three physicians independently assessed the reliability and quality of the videos by using the DISCERN tool and the Global Quality Score (GQS), scored from 1 to 5, with higher scores indicating better reliability and quality, respectively.

We included 139 videos in the analysis. Video creators/publishers were health care professionals (39.6%), patients and family/friends (35.3%), wellness coaches (22.3%), and others (2.9%). The median (IQR) DISCERN score was 2.0 (1.3-2.7); the median (IQR) GQS score was 2.5 (1.5-3.3), indicating the videos were of low quality. Videos by health care professionals had higher DISCERN and GQS scores (P < .001) than videos by other creators/publishers. Video characteristics did not differ significantly between creator/publisher types. Regression results indicated that videos from health care professionals correlated positively with higher DISCERN and GQS scores, especially when videos were longer.

The quality and reliability of TikTok videos on AALD are poor. The public should exercise caution when accessing AALD-related information on TikTok. Health care providers and public health officials should strongly investigate the quality of health information on social media platforms and seek to improve it.