Characterizing the Content Related to Oral Health Education on TikTok

Laurie Fraticelli, Colette Smentek, Delphine Tardivo, Julien Masson, Céline Clément, Sylvain Roy, Claude Dussart, Denis Bourgeois and Florence Carrouel
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Laurie Fraticelli: Health, Systemic, Process, UR 4129 Research Unit, University Claude Bernard Lyon 1, University of Lyon, 69008 Lyon, France
Colette Smentek: Health, Systemic, Process, UR 4129 Research Unit, University Claude Bernard Lyon 1, University of Lyon, 69008 Lyon, France
Delphine Tardivo: ADES UMR 7268, Aix-Marseille University, 13344 Marseille, France
Julien Masson: Health, Systemic, Process, UR 4129 Research Unit, University Claude Bernard Lyon 1, University of Lyon, 69008 Lyon, France
Céline Clément: Health, Systemic, Process, UR 4129 Research Unit, University Claude Bernard Lyon 1, University of Lyon, 69008 Lyon, France
Sylvain Roy: Health, Systemic, Process, UR 4129 Research Unit, University Claude Bernard Lyon 1, University of Lyon, 69008 Lyon, France
Claude Dussart: Health, Systemic, Process, UR 4129 Research Unit, University Claude Bernard Lyon 1, University of Lyon, 69008 Lyon, France
Denis Bourgeois: Health, Systemic, Process, UR 4129 Research Unit, University Claude Bernard Lyon 1, University of Lyon, 69008 Lyon, France
Florence Carrouel: Health, Systemic, Process, UR 4129 Research Unit, University Claude Bernard Lyon 1, University of Lyon, 69008 Lyon, France

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 24, 1-18

Abstract: Neglecting oral hygiene in adolescents negatively affects dental caries and periodontal diseases, in addition to social and emotional well-being. Thus, the TikTok platform (ByteDance, Beijing, China)as a social media could be a powerful channel to provide health-related information and educational content. This study aims to assess the quality of the TikTok videos corresponding to #oralhealtheducation. Sixty-nine videos were identified. Three oral health professionals (OHP), three health education professionals (HEP), and ten of TikTok’s target audience watched and evaluated the videos from a qualitative questionnaire. OHP detected false or incorrect information in 11.6% (8/69) of the videos. At least two HEPs reported being unable to detect this type of content or whether the video met dental ethics standards in both the videos. Disagreement was observed among the professionals themselves. The evaluation indicated that TikTok’s target audience was satisfied with the products viewed with an average score of >2.5, unlike the professionals, whose average score was <2.5 on a scale of 0 to 5. Users are advised to think critically and to consider the content of TikTok oral health videos with caution. The involvement of health professionals in the writing and validation of the videos could be an added value to positively respond to the needs of the adolescents.

Keywords: oral health education; TikTok; young adult; prevention; social media (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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