J Cardiothorac Surg. 2026 Jun 06.
BACKGROUND: The rapid expansion of short-form educational video platforms has substantially increased public access to health information; however, the characteristics and quality of videos concerning patent ductus arteriosus (PDA) have not been systematically evaluated. This study aimed to evaluate the quality and reliability of short-form videos related to PDA posted on TikTok and Bilibili.
METHODS: The Chinese keyword "patent ductus arteriosus" was used to retrieve relevant videos from TikTok and Bilibili, yielding 140 videos for the final analysis. Uploaders were classified according to publicly available account information. Professional uploaders were defined as accounts identifying the uploader as a healthcare professional and displaying official platform verification and/or an explicit affiliation with a recognized medical institution. Credentials were verified using publicly visible profile elements, including verification badges, profile descriptions, professional titles, and stated institutional affiliations. All included videos were independently evaluated by two reviewers. Because paired reviewer-level ratings were available for the Global Quality Score (GQS), inter-rater reliability for GQS was assessed before consensus adjudication using the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) and quadratic weighted Cohen's kappa. Video quality and reliability were assessed using five established instruments: the Global Quality Score (GQS), Video Information and Quality Index (VIQI), Patient Education Materials Assessment Tool (PEMAT), the JAMA benchmark criteria, and modified DISCERN (mDISCERN). Only the first 100 algorithm-ranked videos from each platform were screened, in order to reflect the content most likely to be encountered by typical users, although this approach may preferentially capture videos favored by platform recommendation systems. No independent clinical subject-matter expert (such as a neonatologist or cardiologist) was separately involved in the formal scoring process; instead, the evaluation focused on quality, reliability, transparency, and understandability using established assessment instruments. Clinical accuracy was not independently assessed or adjudicated in this study.
RESULTS: A total of 140 short videos related to patent ductus arteriosus (PDA) were included in the analysis, with 57 from Bilibili and 83 from TikTok. TikTok videos demonstrated significantly higher audience engagement than those on Bilibili, with markedly greater numbers of likes, favorites, shares, and comments. Bilibili videos were slightly longer in duration, and there was no significant difference in posting time between the two platforms. Videos on TikTok also achieved significantly higher scores across all five quality assessment tools-mDISCERN, GQS, VIQI, PEMAT, and the JAMA benchmark-and most high-quality videos were uploaded by professional individuals. In the present study, these professional individuals were defined on the basis of publicly visible healthcare-related identity information and platform verification status. When stratified by uploader type, videos created by professionals consistently outperformed those from non-professional individuals and institutions in both quality scores and engagement metrics. Professional videos were predominantly found on TikTok. Correlation analyses indicated weak to moderate positive associations between most quality indicators and likes, favorites, and shares on both platforms, although the correlation coefficients remained low. Notably, the average JAMA benchmark score was approximately half of the maximum possible score on both platforms. Inter-rater reliability for GQS was acceptable, with a single-measure ICC of 0.632, an average-measure ICC of 0.774, and a quadratic weighted Cohen's kappa of 0.630.
CONCLUSIONS: The overall quality of PDA-related health information on major Chinese short-video platforms appears to be moderate. TikTok and professional uploaders demonstrated clear advantages in reliability, comprehensibility, and communication effectiveness. Platform attributes and uploader background exert significant influence on video quality and dissemination performance. Future efforts should focus on strengthening platform oversight, encouraging greater involvement of qualified healthcare professionals, and standardizing the disclosure of information sources and conflicts of interest. Such measures are essential for improving the accuracy, quality, and trustworthiness of online cardiovascular health information and for better supporting parents of children with PDA and the general public. These findings should be interpreted as reflecting informational quality, structure, transparency, and understandability rather than independently verified clinical accuracy.
Keywords: Bilibili; Health Information; Patent ductus arteriosus; Social Media; TikTok; Video Quality