Evaluating the Reliability and Quality of Bariatric Surgery Educational Content on TikTok and Bilibili: a Cross-Sectional Content Analysis.

Background: Obesity is a chronic disease with a rising global prevalence, representing a significant public health burden. Patients increasingly utilize short-video platforms such as TikTok and Bilibili to obtain health information regarding bariatric surgery. The quality and reliability of this content have not been thoroughly evaluated, raising concerns about the potential for misinformation to influence patient decision-making.

Methods: A cross-sectional content analysis was conducted on the top 100 videos retrieved from both TikTok and Bilibili using the keyword "bariatric surgery" in Chinese. After excluding irrelevant and duplicate content, a total of 200 videos were included for analysis. Videos were systematically categorized by uploader type and content. Two senior bariatric surgeons independently assessed the videos for quality and reliability using the Global Quality Score (GQS) and a modified DISCERN instrument.

Results: TikTok videos demonstrated significantly higher user engagement, with greater median likes, collections, shares, and comments compared to Bilibili (p < 0.001). Conversely, Bilibili videos had a significantly longer median duration (p < 0.001). The overall quality of videos on both platforms was suboptimal. However, TikTok videos received modestly higher GQS and DISCERN scores from both reviewers (p < 0.05). Content uploaded by professional institutions achieved the highest quality scores across both platforms (p < 0.001). Professional individuals were the predominant uploaders, accounting for 79.0% of the videos. A strong positive correlation was observed among user engagement metrics (likes, saves, shares, comments; r > 0.9), but these metrics showed no significant correlation with GQS or DISCERN quality scores.

Conclusion: The quality and reliability of bariatric surgery-related educational content on both TikTok and Bilibili are largely inadequate. While TikTok videos demonstrated slightly superior quality scores, professional institutions represent the most reliable source of information. User engagement metrics are poor indicators of video quality. These findings underscore the need for healthcare professionals to guide patients in navigating online health information and for platforms to implement more stringent quality control measures.