Evaluating the Distribution, Quality, and Educational Value of Videos Related to Shoulder Instability Exercises on the Social Media Platform TikTok

Background:Because of the lack of scientific oversight, the quality, applicability, and consistency of healthcare-related TikTok videos have become a focus of research exploration. The orthopaedic surgery literature lags behind other medical fields in analyzing the widespread utilization of TikTok videos for medical information delivery.Methods:TikTok was queried using the hashtag #shoulderstabilityexercises, and 109 videos were included. The videos were collected by two authors and independently evaluated using DISCERN (a well-validated informational analysis tool) and shoulder stability exercise education score (a self-designed tool for the evaluation of shoulder instability-related exercises).Results:DISCERN scores of videos uploaded by general users had significantly lower scores in all four categories than those uploaded by healthcare professionals (P < 0.001, P = 0.005, P = 0.002, and P < 0.001). For the shoulder stability exercise education score, general users had a significantly lower score than the healthcare professionals at 3.36 and 4.91 on a 25-point scale, respectively (P = 0.034). General users had more videos graded as very poor (84.2%) in comparison to the number of videos uploaded by healthcare professionals deemed very poor (51.5%). However, the remainder of healthcare professionals had their videos graded as poor (48.5%).Conclusion:Despite slightly improved video quality from healthcare professionals, the overall educational of the videos related to shoulder instability exercises was poor.