Oral Diabetes Medication Videos on Douyin: Analysis of Information Quality and User Comment Attitudes (Preprint)

BACKGROUND Oral diabetes medications are important for glucose management in people with diabetes. Although there are many health-related videos on Douyin (the Chinese version of TikTok), the quality of information and the effects on user comment attitudes are unclear. OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to analyze the quality of information and user comment attitudes related to oral diabetes medication videos on Douyin. METHODS The key phrase “oral diabetes medications” was used to search Douyin on July 24, 2023, and the final samples included 138 videos. The basic information in the videos and the content of user comments were captured using Python. Each video was assigned a sentiment category based on the predominant positive, neutral, or negative attitude, as analyzed using the Weiciyun website. Two independent raters assessed the video content and information quality using the DISCERN (a tool for assessing health information quality) and PEMAT-A/V (Patient Education Materials Assessment Tool for Audiovisual Materials) instruments. RESULTS Doctors were the main source of the videos (136/138, 98.6%). The overall information quality of the videos was acceptable (median 3, IQR 1). Videos on Douyin showed relatively high understandability (median 75%, IQR 16.6%) but poor actionability (median 66.7%, IQR 48%). Most content on oral diabetes medications on Douyin related to the mechanism of action (75/138, 54.3%), precautions (70/138, 50.7%), and advantages (68/138, 49.3%), with limited content on indications (19/138, 13.8%) and contraindications (14/138, 10.1%). It was found that 10.1% (14/138) of the videos contained misinformation, of which 50% (7/14) were about the method of administration. Regarding user comment attitudes, the majority of videos garnered positive comments (81/138, 58.7%), followed by neutral comments (46/138, 33.3%) and negative comments (11/138, 8%). Multinomial logistic regression revealed 2 factors influencing a positive attitude: user comment count (adjusted odds ratio [OR] 1.00, 95% CI 1.00-1.00; <i>P</i>=.02) and information quality of treatment choices (adjusted OR 1.49, 95% CI 1.09-2.04; <i>P</i>=.01). CONCLUSIONS Despite most videos on Douyin being posted by doctors, with generally acceptable information quality and positive user comment attitudes, some content inaccuracies and poor actionability remain. Users show more positive attitudes toward videos with high-quality information about treatment choices. This study suggests that health care providers should ensure the accuracy and actionability of video content, enhance the information quality of treatment choices of oral diabetes medications to foster positive user attitudes, help users access accurate health information, and promote medication adherence.