Nearly 40% of posts about cirrhosis, liver disease on TikTok contain misinformation
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CHICAGO — Although inaccurate posts about cirrhosis or liver disease were less popular, they still represented a high volume, leaving people with liver disease “susceptible to false claims,” a presenter noted at Digestive Disease Week.
“Given the high mortality associated with liver disease, the impact of spreading inaccurate claims on such a popular social media platform could have serious clinical ramifications,” Macklin Loveland, MD, an internal medicine resident at the University of Arizona College of Medine, told Healio.
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“Studies have shown that young populations are resorting to TikTok to access their health information,” he continued. “If these youth have liver disease themselves or know someone who does, they might guide their care and therapies through TikTok rather than their physician.”
Loveland used the search engine on the mobile app TikTok to investigate use of the keywords “cirrhosis” and “liver disease” from Oct. 1, 2022, to Nov. 25, 2022. He identified 2,223 posts related to the terms and classified them based on whether they were educational or depicted firsthand experience with cirrhosis or liver disease. He also documented whether specific etiologies were identified.
“Comparing the posts against established practice guidelines for making patient care decisions from AASLD, AGA and ACG, I found 883 — nearly 40% — contained misinformation,” he said. “The most common inaccurate posts had claims about herbal products reversing liver disease.”
According to Loveland, on average there were 120,737 views on posts with accurate information vs. 53,316 views on posts with misinformation (P = .021). He also reported an average of 14,463 vs. 1,671 likes, respectively, (P = .016); an average of 272 vs. 42 comments (P = .003); and an average of 364 vs. 140 shares (P = .226).
“Posts that were strictly informational contained far more misinformation than those with patients sharing personal experiences,” Loveland said. “Even though inaccurate posts were less popular, they still represent a high volume of misinformation on the platform, leaving people with liver disease susceptible to false claims.”
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Loveland M. Poster Tu1523: Analysis of liver disease misinformation & accurate information within the social media platform, TikTok. Presented at: Digestive Disease Week; May 5-9, 2023; Chicago (hybrid meeting).
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