The Reliability and Quality of Short Videos as a Source of Dietary Guidance for Acute Pancreatitis: Cross-sectional Study (Preprint)

Abstract

Acute pancreatitis (AP) is one of the most prevalent gastrointestinal diseases in clinical practice. In addition to essential medication therapy, a nutritional diet also plays a vital part in the treatment. People are increasingly using online short video platforms to look up health-related information with the widespread use of smartphones. However, the quality and reliability of health content on these platforms remain unknown.

This study aimed to assess the quality and reliability of the information in AP diet–related videos on Chinese short-video-sharing platforms.

A total of 147 videos were included to analyze from three of the most widely used short-video sharing platforms in China, TikTok, BiliBili, and WeChat channels. Each video was assessed by two physicians separately for content (by content score), quality (by Global Quality Score), and reliability (by an adjusted DISCERN tool). Poisson regression and correlation analysis were used to explore the variables that might affect the quality of the video.

videos from TikTok had the most likes and comments than videos from TikTok and WeChat channels, and videos from BiliBili were longer in duration and in days since published than other videos (all p<.001). However, there was no significant difference in the GQS, content score and the DISCERN score among videos from TikTok, BiliBili, and WeChat channels (p>.05). The overall quality of the videos was poor. videos from medical professionals had a relatively greater advice value than those from non-medical professionals in the field of content trustworthiness, quality, and comprehensiveness. The subsequent variables were correlated positively: likes and shares (r=0.326, p<.001), likes and comments (r=0.439, p<.001), comments and shares (r=0.337, p<0.001). DISCERN scores and days since published were found to be negatively correlated (r=-0.259, p<.001).

The findings showed that these videos’ quality was inadequate and varied greatly based on the kind of source. In general, videos uploaded by medical professionals were proved to be more reliable, comprehensive, and high-quality than non-medical professionals' videos in content quality. these platforms were not a suitable source of information for patient education. But given the rise in popularity of video-sharing platforms, necessary regulations and restrictions should be taken.