Videos With the Hashtag #vaping on TikTok and Implications for Informed Decision-making by Adolescents: Descriptive Study (Preprint)

BACKGROUND Despite the public health importance of vaping and the widespread use of TikTok by adolescents and young adults, research is lacking on the nature and scope of vaping content on this networking service. OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study is to describe the content of TikTok videos related to vaping. METHODS By searching the hashtag #vaping in the discover feature, ~478.4 million views were seen during the time of data collection. The first 100 relevant videos under that hashtag were used in this study. Relevance was determined by simply noting if the video was related in any way to vaping. Coding consisted of several categories directly related to vaping and additional categories, including the number of likes, comments, and views, and if the video involved music, humor, or dance. RESULTS The 100 videos included in the sample garnered 156,331,347 views; 20,335,800 likes; and 296,460 comments. The majority of the videos (n=59) used music and over one-third (n=37) used humor. The only content category observed in the majority of the videos sampled was the promotion of vaping, which was included in 57 videos that garnered over 74 million views (47.5% of cumulative views). A total of 42% (n=42) of the 100 videos sampled featured someone vaping or in the presence of vape pens, and these videos garnered over 22% (>35 million) of the total views. CONCLUSIONS It is necessary for public health agencies to improve understanding of the nature and content of videos that attract viewers’ attention and harness the strength of this communication channel to promote informed decision-making about vaping.