TikTok and digital health literacy: A systematic review

Abstract

Individuals need digital health literacy in order to locate, comprehend and evaluate the credibility of online health information. Users of the social media platform TikTok may commonly encounter health information whether they seek it or not. The interplay between TikTok and digital health literacy is not well understood, and thus 170 million US-based users are approaching a nation-wide ban on TikTok without a solid research-informed understanding of what this means for those using this platform to source health information and to engage with an online health community relevant to their health needs. This systematic review captures the small pool of relevant peer-reviewed research, using an additional layer of quality control through journal checking as a novel addition. The key preoccupations and findings in this literature are related to implications for US users in the event of a TikTok ban, as well as the needs of library-based educators globally.