Quality and reliability of pediatric pneumonia related short videos on mainstream platforms: cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND

Pediatric pneumonia remains a major global health concern, accounting for one of the leading causes of mortality among children under five years of age. With the prevalence of COVID-19, public attention to pediatric pneumonia has significantly increased. In recent years, short video platforms such as Bilibili, TikTok, and Kwai-boasting billions of global users-have emerged as critical channels for disseminating and accessing health-related information. This study systematically evaluates the quality and reliability of pediatric pneumonia-related short videos on the aforementioned three platforms.

METHODS

We employed the Chinese keyword "Pneumonia in Children" to conduct searches on Bilibili, TikTok, and Kwai, selected the top 100 recommended related videos of each platform, and extracted and recorded the title, website, publisher, content, duration, days since published, and audience engagement metrics (Likes, Comments, Saves) of each video. The Global Quality Scale (GQS), modified DISCERN (mDISCERN), and Medical Quality Video Evaluation Tool (MQ-VET) were used to evaluate video quality and reliability. Finally, statistical analyses were conducted to compare quality differences among different platforms, different types of publishers, and different video content.

RESULTS

Significant variations in audience engagement metrics (likes, comments, and saves) were observed across the three platforms (p < 0.01), with TikTok demonstrating the highest values for all metrics. The categorization of video content and publisher types exhibited statistically significant heterogeneity among the platforms (p < 0.001). Videos created by medical professionals exhibited significantly elevated quality and reliability assessment scores in comparison to content generated by non-medical practitioners (p < 0.001). Bilibili consistently achieved the highest scores across all evaluation tools (GQS, mDISCERN, and MQ-VET scores; p < 0.001), particularly for content produced by medical professionals. Compared with News and reports, videos focused on disease Disease knowledge and Treatment and prevention received significantly higher scores (p < 0.001). Notably, a negative correlation was identified between video quality scores and audience engagement metrics(p < 0.05).

CONCLUSION

The overall quality of video content on the three platforms Bilibili, TikTok, and Kwai is average, with low reliability, among which Bilibili's video quality and reliability are higher than the other two platforms. Meanwhile, videos published by medical professionals have better quality and higher reliability.