Social Media Content, Engagement, and Reliability for Infantile Hemangiomas: A Comparison Across YouTube, Instagram,...

Infantile hemangiomas are a benign vascular abnormality that presents in infancy. Parents may seek a variety of resources to gather information, including social media. This study seeks to compare information on infantile hemangiomas on social media platforms.

The top videos across YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok were analyzed. A total of 361 videos were screened, with 150 included in the final analysis. Engagement was assessed by the number of views. Reliability was determined using the modified DISCERN (mDISCERN) score. Kruskal-Wallis test compared the mean mDISCERN score.

Fifty videos from each platform were included. The videos cumulatively had 1,239,836 likes and 27,416,017 views. Videos were predominately posted by family members (N=63) and health care providers (N=44). Video content largely focused on patient stories (N=77) and clinician explanations (N=63). There is a significant difference in mDISCERN between platforms (P<0.001). YouTube videos scored significantly higher than both Instagram and TikTok (P=0.000 and P=0.000, respectively). No difference was noted in mDISCERN between Instagram and TikTok (P=0.073). There is a significant difference in the number of views across the different platforms (P<0.001). TikTok videos had significantly more views than both YouTube (P=0.00) and Instagram (P=0.00). There was no significant difference in the number of views between YouTube and Instagram.

There are a significant number of videos available on social media discussing infantile hemangiomas. TikTok had the most user engagement despite having less reliable videos than YouTube. Improving the reliability of videos on social media is necessary to decrease the dissemination of misinformation.