Medically accurate asthma information sparse on TikTok
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SAN ANTONIO — Only 13.7% of the videos about asthma on the social media platform TikTok are medically accurate, with just 9.8% posted by a professional practitioner, according to data presented here.
“We found that 40% of younger generations actually are using TikTok kind of like a search engine, as a Google search, for their health information,” Tori Martel, MPH, social media community manager with the Allergy & Asthma Network, told Healio. “We were concerned that all this misinformation online might be hurting the asthma community.”
The study
In March 2022, a search for “#asthma” on TikTok yielded 51 videos. Three independent experts reviewed these videos and categorized them based on whether they were accurate or inaccurate, whether they provided guidance or entertainment, and whether they were personal. Also, the researchers ranked these videos by popularity.
The findings were presented at the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology Annual Meeting.
More than half of the videos were categorized as personal experiences (27.5%) — with TikTok users telling their own stories of living with asthma — or entertainment (25.5%).
While the researchers classified 13.7% of the videos as medically accurate, another 13.7% were medically inaccurate. Also, 7.8% were about pet asthma, 5.9% offered helpful advice (as determined by the researchers), 3.9% mocked asthma and 2% shared improper inhaler techniques.
“The most popular video, which had over 1.6 million likes, was just about sexual activity and needing an asthma inhaler during it. It was a joke,” Martel said.
Combined, the other 50 videos had a total of 1.8 million likes, the researchers said.
Experts respond
The Allergy & Asthma Network responded to these videos by launching its own TikTok channel at @allergyasthmahq. With more than 40 videos so far, posts include information and advice for patients with asthma.
“Two of our most popular videos so far in the past year have been a demonstration of someone using a space chamber for their asthma inhaler as well as a FeNO oxygen test demonstrating how that looks, what it does and what your scores mean,” Martel said. “Those have totaled about a hundred thousand views.”
Food and environmental allergies are addressed as well, with advice on managing epinephrine and anaphylaxis, oral immunotherapy, ragweed allergy seasons, air filters, the differences between food allergy and intolerance, and more.
Jackie Eghrari-Sabet, MD, telehealth medical director with the Allergy & Asthma Network, also discusses atopic dermatitis in a series of videos providing advice for skin care as well as insight into the disease’s impact on mental health.
“We’re just trying to get online and just be a trustworthy, reliable source, and we encourage other organizations like ourselves to get online and send out that accurate, reliable information,” Martel said.
Providers who want to get on TikTok too should know that effective videos require care, Martel continued.
“Try to make it fun, but also still medically accurate. Try to make it quick, because no one wants to sit there,” she said. “You really have to catch them in the beginning and try to grab on to them and keep them for the short amount of time that you have.”
Meanwhile, TikTok is not the only social media source for asthma and allergy advice, although accuracy on other sites varies as well.
“The other platforms have more medically accurate information, just because they’ve been around longer,” Martel said. “Twitter and LinkedIn are more professional-based, we have seen, so they probably have the most medically accurate information, while Facebook and Instagram can tend to sometimes have this inaccurate information that floats around.”
But whether patients turn to social media or just ask for advice in the clinic, Martel said, doctors can always play a role.
“Just send your patients, or other people who are coming in and asking about these things, to a reliable source,” Martel said. “Or practitioners can combat misinformation themselves by just showing their patients the accurate information that they need to have.”