ArticleInjury epidemiology2025
A content analysis of the Orbeez
Article in Injury epidemiology, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed.
- Hyphema Associated with Water Bead Projectile Toys: A Retrospective Comparative Study.Clinical ophthalmology (Auckland, N.Z.) · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundTikTok is one of the fastest-growing social media platforms. With 50 million active daily users in the United States, videos on TikTok have the opportunity to reach an exceptionally large audience. It is of concern that some of these videos may be harmful, especially if they encourage dangerous or risky behavior that can increase injury risk. This is common for social media challenges, where people are encouraged to participate in and record a task and then post it on social media. The "Orbeez Challenge" was a challenge that went viral in 2022 and encouraged viewers to shoot water beads with Gel Blaster guns at others. The purpose of this study was to describe content for the "Orbeez Challenge" on TikTok, informed by pathways of the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM).
methodsThis study conducted a content analysis of TikTok videos related to the Orbeez challenge identified between October 5-11, 2022. A codebook was created by using abductive code generation, driven by an inductive iterative review of a sample of videos not included in the final study sample, and deductive code development to collect elements of the ELM.
resultsThere were 125 videos in the final sample. Collectively, these videos had over 255 million views. Most (70.0%) of the creators were laypersons. Text (n = 97; 77.6%) and music (n = 83; 66.4%) were frequently present in the videos. Individuals were primarily shooting (47.2%) or loading (25.6%) the Gel Blaster. Nearly half (46.3%) of the content creators had between 10,000 and 500,000 followers. Most videos (n = 109; 87.2%) did not depict any injury prevention precautions, but of the 15 videos (12.0%) that did show injury prevention precautions, 14 (93.3%) were for eye protection.
conclusionsThis study characterized the content of the TikTok videos associated with the viral "Orbeez Challenge" and showed that TikTok videos could be characterized with guidance from a health communication theory. Despite their increased injury risk, the videos had high engagement and were most frequently posted by laypersons. This research presents an opportunity for countering injury challenges on social media and can guide injury professionals in designing and improving virtual health education campaigns.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
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.