Quality and engagement of #chiropractic content on TikTok: A DISCERN-based cross-sectional analysis

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the informational quality of #chiropractic-related TikTok videos using the DISCERN instrument and to examine associations between content quality, uploader characteristics, engagement metrics, and video duration.

The top 300 TikTok videos tagged with #chiropractic were retrieved using the Apify TikTok Scraper on April 8, 2026. Data collected included account verification status, chiropractor or health care provider identity, views, comments, shares, collects, and video duration. Informational quality was independently assessed by 2 reviewers using DISCERN.

A total of 300 videos from 190 unique accounts were included. Among these accounts, 9 (4.7%) were verified, 79 (41.6%) were identified as chiropractors, and 89 (46.8%) were classified as health care providers. The median DISCERN score was 20 (interquartile range, 18-21). Most videos were rated as very poor (96.7%) or poor (2.0%) with only 1 fair and 3 good videos; none was rated excellent. Videos uploaded by chiropractor and health care provider accounts had significantly higher DISCERN scores than nonprofessional sources (P < .001). Verified accounts generated significantly greater engagement but did not show significantly higher DISCERN scores (P = .06). DISCERN scores were not significantly correlated with views, likes, comments, shares, or collects but showed a weak positive correlation with video duration (r = 0.185, P = .001).

The overall informational quality of #chiropractic-related TikTok content was low. Professional creators produced higher quality videos, whereas popularity did not reliably reflect informational quality.