The quality and content of gonorrhea-related short videos on TikTok: A cross-sectional study.

Background: Gonorrhea is a common sexually transmitted disease that remains highly prevalent worldwide. Social media platforms such as TikTok have become important sources of public health information, yet the quality and reliability of video content on these platforms remain unclear. This study aimed to evaluate the content, quality, and reliability of gonorrhea-related short videos on TikTok. Methods: A cross-sectional analysis was conducted on 71 gonorrhea-related short videos on TikTok. Video characteristics, uploader types, and content themes were extracted. The Global Quality Score (GQS) and modified DISCERN (mDISCERN) tool were used to assess video quality and reliability. Correlation analysis was performed between video metrics and quality scores. Results: The videos were generally short in duration (median: 49.00 s) but exhibited high user engagement. Common topics included clinical manifestations (64.79%), transmission routes (47.89%), and diagnosis (45.07%), while prevention, treatment and prognosis were less frequently discussed. The main uploaders were dermatologists, urologists, and individual users. Videos uploaded by healthcare professionals had significantly higher GQS scores than those from individual users, with a similar but statistically insignificant trend in mDISCERN scores. Positive correlations were found among engagement metrics (likes, favorites, comments, and shares), but no correlation was observed between engagement and video quality. Conclusions: Gonorrhea-related TikTok videos are highly interactive but generally lack in quality, reliability, and content coverage. Increasing professional involvement and improving platform-level content regulation are essential to enhance the educational value of health information delivered via TikTok platforms.