ArticleJMIR public health and surveillance2021
Promoting Mask Use on TikTok: Descriptive, Cross-sectional Study.
Article in JMIR public health and surveillance, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 41 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
41 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 109 citations in OpenAlex.
- Using TikTok for public and youth mental health - A systematic review and content analysis.Clinical child psychology and psychiatry · 2023Pooled it
- Quality evaluation of short videos about insomnia on TikTok and Bilibili: A cross-sectional study.Medicine · 2026Article
- Quality and Reliability of Lung Cancer Treatment Short Videos on Chinese Social Media: A Cross-Sectional Analysis for Cancer Education Improvement (January 1, 2020-October 30, 2025).Thoracic cancer · 2026Article
- Humor in Social Media Health Communication: A Systematic Review of Strategic Uses and Effects.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- The impact of algorithm-driven exposure to disease-related short videos on rehabilitation outcomes in lumbar disc herniation patients: content heterogeneity and psychological mediating mechanisms.Frontiers in digital health · 2026Article
- YouTube videos on nutrition and pediatric cancer: scientific reliability and quality.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Short-form video platforms as a source of ankylosing spondylitis information: a cross-sectional content analysis.Frontiers in digital health · 2026Article
- Professional content analysis and quality assessment of cardiopulmonary resuscitation educational videos on social media platforms: a comparative study of YouTube, BiliBili, and TikTok.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
- Descriptive analysis of TikTok content on vaccination in Arabic.AIMS public health · 2025Article
- Evaluating the quality and reliability of Kawasaki disease-related content on TikTok and Bilibili: a cross-sectional study.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
- Article
- Mediterranean Diet Information on TikTok and Implications for Digital Health Promotion Research: Social Media Content Analysis.JMIR formative research · 2024Article
- Article
- How do health content creators perform well? An integration research of short video and livestream behaviors.Frontiers in public health · 2024Article
- Analyzing dissemination, quality, and reliability of Chinese brain tumor-related short videos on TikTok and Bilibili: a cross-sectional study.Frontiers in neurology · 2024Article
- A reflexive thematic analysis of #WhatIEatInADay on TikTok.Eating behaviors · 2023Article
- Public health agencies' use of social media for communication during pandemics: a scoping review of the literature.Osong public health and research perspectives · 2023Article
- Quality and Reliability of Liver Cancer-Related Short Chinese Videos on TikTok and Bilibili: Cross-Sectional Content Analysis Study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2023Article
- Microlearning through TikTok in Higher Education. An evaluation of uses and potentials.Education and information technologies · 2023Article
- An International Systematic Review Concerning the Effect of Social Media Exposure on Public Compliance with Infection Prevention and Control Measures During the COVID-19 Pandemic.Journal of infection prevention · 2023Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundOver the past decade, there has been an increasing secular trend in the number of studies on social media and health.
objectiveThe purpose of this cross-sectional study was to examine the content and characteristics of TikTok videos that are related to an important aspect of community mitigation-the use of masks as a method for interrupting the transmission of SARS-CoV-2.
methodsIn total, 100 trending videos with the hashtag #WearAMask (ie, a campaign on TikTok), along with 32 videos that were posted by the World Health Organization (WHO) and involved masks in any way (ie, all related WHO videos at the time of this study), were included in our sample. We collected the metadata of each post, and created content categories based on fact sheets that were provided by the WHO and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. We used these fact sheets to code the characteristics of mask use.
resultsVideos that were posted on TikTok and had the hashtag #WearAMask garnered almost 500 million views, and videos that were posted by the WHO garnered almost 57 million views. Although the ratio of the number of trending #WearAMask videos to the number of WHO videos was around 3:1, the #WearAMask videos received almost 10 times as many cumulative views as the WHO videos. In total, 68% (68/100) of the trending #WearAMask videos involved humor and garnered over 355 million cumulative views. However, only 9% (3/32) of the WHO videos involved humor. Furthermore, 27% (27/100) of the trending #WearAMask videos involved dance and garnered over 130 million cumulative views, whereas none of the WHO videos involved dance.
conclusionsThis study is one of the first to describe how TikTok is being used to mitigate the community spread of COVID-19 by promoting mask use. Due to the platform's incredible reach, TikTok has great potential in conveying important public health messages to various segments of the population.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.