D0265 - A Social Media Analysis of Constipation-Related Videos on TikTok

Nanda Siva, BS¹, Shanawar Waris, BS¹, Rahul Raiker, BS¹, Haig Pakhchanian, BS², Shailendra Singh, MD^3
1West Virginia University School of Medicine, Morgantown, WV; ²George Washington University School of Medicine, Washington, DC; ³University of West Virginia, Morgantown, WV

Introduction: The transmission of healthcare information on social media platforms has become increasingly prevalent. The guidance provided in videos can greatly influence patients’ understanding and decisions. Thus, scrutinizing the content consumed by patients on popular platforms, such as TikTok, is imperative. TikTok is one of the fastest growing social media platforms in the world, with over 1 billion active monthly users. The goal of this study is to analyze constipation related videos on TikTok and characterize the sources posting them.

Methods: The TikTok hashtag related to constipation with the greatest number of views was identified. The top 100 videos based on a priori exclusion criteria (no connection to the medical condition of constipation, non-English speaking, or repeated video) were collected. The videos were dichotomously categorized into educational or non-educational. Furthermore, the specific content topics, such as diet, medication, and hydration, present in the video were specifically noted. The source for each video was categorized based on involvement in healthcare, gender, and race. A healthcare provider was defined as an individual with a professional medical degree, including MD, PA, RN, PharmD etc.

Results: #constipation was the most popular relevant TikTok hashtag with 729.2 million total views. The top 100 included videos had a combined total of 349,303,900 plays, 31,895,000 likes, 1554,409 shares, and 339,261 comments. Out of the 100, 60% of videos were educational, while 40% were non-educational. The most common topics presented in the videos were diet (26%) medical treatment (18%), and increased movement (14%); proper hydration was only highlighted in 4% of videos. Other topics presented are quantified in Table 1. The video sources for 23% of videos were healthcare based, while the remaining 77% were laypersons. The specialty breakdown of healthcare professionals was 9 physical therapy, 6 surgery, 3 alternative medicine, 2 other, 1 gastroenterology, 1 obstetrics/gynecology, and 1 general medical center. The racial designations of the subjects in videos consisted of 53% White, 35% Asian, 3% Black, and 12% unknown/non-applicable (no human subject); the gender designations present in the video were 75% female, 18% male, 2% male and female, and 5% unknown/non-applicable (no human subject).

Discussion: The majority of constipation based TikTok videos was not posted by qualified healthcare professionals, with only one gastroenterologist presented video in the top 100.



Disclosures:


Nanda Siva, BS¹, Shanawar Waris, BS¹, Rahul Raiker, BS¹, Haig Pakhchanian, BS², Shailendra Singh, MD³. D0265 - A Social Media Analysis of Constipation-Related Videos on TikTok, ACG 2022 Annual Scientific Meeting Abstracts. Charlotte, NC: American College of Gastroenterology.