ArticleSurgical endoscopy2025
Evaluation of social media videos on weight-loss surgery and GLP-1 agonists: a content quality and reliability analysis.
Article in Surgical endoscopy, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.
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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.
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Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed.
- The use of TikTok as a source of medical information regarding tubal ligation: a cross-sectional study.Contraception and reproductive medicine · 2026Article
- Considering Glucagon-like Peptide-1 Receptor Agonists (GLP-1RAs) for Weight Loss: Insights from a Pragmatic Mixed-Methods Study of Patient Beliefs and Barriers.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Assessing the quality and reliability of health information on GLP-1 receptor agonists on TikTok and Bilibili: a cross-sectional analysis of the public health infodemic.Therapeutic advances in endocrinology and metabolism · 2026Article
- The Quality and Reliability of Short Videos About Melasma on TikTok and Bilibili: A Cross-Sectional Study.Journal of cosmetic dermatology · 2025Article
- Evaluating the quality of educational TikTok videos on diabetic retinopathy: a cross-sectional study.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundSocial media platforms have become a leading arena for disseminating health knowledge. Information on weight loss is no exception; health, fitness and nutrition are within the 5 most searched categories in 2023. Our study investigates the quality of information on TikTok and Instagram regarding the two most popular weight loss treatments: glucagon-like-peptide-1 (GLP-1) agonist and sleeve gastrectomy.
methodsTikTok and Instagram were queried for contents about GLP-1 agonists or sleeve gastrectomy. The first 50 videos from each category were evaluated by two reviewers. The videos were divided into four categories: Instagram GLP-1, Instagram weight loss surgery (WLS), TikTok GLP-1, and TikTok WLS. The quality of the contents was assessed using the DISCERN score.
results200 videos were collected for analysis. 31.5% were created by medical professionals and 68.5% were from non-medical professionals. More videos from Instagram regarding GLP-1 agonists followed by videos from TikTok regarding GLP-1 agonists were made by medical professionals compared to videos about surgery (p = 0.038). The average number of likes overall was 67,024 and saves or shares 6,305. The greatest number of likes were in the TikTok surgery group (p = 0.004) and the most saves or shares were in the Instagram surgery group (p < 0.001). DISCERN scores were low for all four categories, overall 28.0 out of 80. They were highest in the Instagram GLP-1 agonist group (p < 0.001).
conclusionsDespite the popularity of TikTok and Instagram, the quality of the health contents, as measured by DISCERN score, on these platforms remains poor. Most are created by non-medical professionals. Healthcare professionals should encourage patients to remain vigilant and educate them on misinformation on social media. This may also represent an opportunity for healthcare providers to generate their own social media content to ensure reliability of information as well as to direct patients to reliable social media content.
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