The quality and reliability of short videos about thyroid nodules on BiliBili and TikTok: Cross-sectional study

Background The detection rate of thyroid nodules has witnessed a significant surge in recent years, triggering heightened public apprehension. Short video platforms such as TikTok and BiliBili have showed tremendous potential in the dissemination of health information. There is a plethora of videos about thyroid nodules on TikTok and BiliBili, but the quality and reliability of videos concerning thyroid nodules remains unknown. Methods On December 3 rd , 2023, the top 100 short videos related to thyroid nodules on BiliBili and TikTok were collected through a comprehensive search in Chinese. After extracting the basic information, the quality and reliability of each video was assessed by using the global quality score (GQS) and DISCERN score. Further, Spearman correlation analyses were applied to examine the correlation among video variables, GQS and DISCERN score. Results Compared to BiliBili, TikTok exhibits greater popularity, as evidenced by higher counts of likes ( P = 0.021), comments ( P = 0.008) and shares ( P = 0.017). The median (interquartile range) scores of GQS and DISCERN score were 3 (2–3) on TikTok while 2 (2–3) on BiliBili. Both reviewers exhibited good consistency in GQS and DISCERN score. Moreover, it was observed that the videos shared by thyroid specialists demonstrated higher scores both in GQS ( P = 0.014) and DISCERN score ( P = 0.022) than others on TikTok. Spearman correlation analysis revealed no significant correlation between video variables and the scores of GQS and DISCERN score. Conclusions The quality and reliability of thyroid nodules videos on BiliBili and TikTok were unsatisfactory. Notably, videos shared by thyroid specialists are more likely to exhibit superior quality and reliability. People should exercise caution when perusing short videos.