Quality and Reliability of Liver Cancer-Related Short Chinese Videos on TikTok and Bilibili: Cross-Sectional Content Analysis Study

Abstract

Background: Liver cancer incidence has been increasing in China in the recent years, leading to increased public concern regarding the burden of this disease. Short videos on liver cancer are disseminated through TikTok and Bilibili apps, which have gained popularity in recent years as an easily accessible source of health information. However, the credibility, quality, and usefulness of the information in these short videos and the professional knowledge of the individuals uploading health information-based videos in these platforms have not yet been evaluated. Objective: Our study aims to assess the quality of the information in Chinese short videos on liver cancer shared on the TikTok and Bilibili short video-sharing platforms. Methods: In March 2023, we assessed the top 100 Chinese short videos on liver cancer in TikTok and Bilibili (200 videos in total) for their information quality and reliability by using 2 rating tools, namely, global quality score (GQS) and the DISCERN instrument. Correlation and Poisson regression analyses were applied to discuss the factors that could impact video quality. Results: Compared to Bilibili, TikTok is more popular, although the length of the videos on TikTok is shorter than that of the videos on Bilibili (P