TikTok contraception content misleading, mostly created by laypeople
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ANAHEIM, Calif. — Videos on the social media platform TikTok that discuss contraception are misleading, which may influence the reproductive choices of teens using the app, study findings presented here show.
According to the researchers, teenagers may commonly receive medical information and advice through social media because of how pervasive the use of such platforms has become among adolescents.
“While there have been numerous news reports about these online trends, social media is not as widely used by the medical establishment, and the research on the intersection between these entities is still emerging,” Ruth Milanaik, DO, a developmental pediatrician at Cohen Children's Medical Center at Northwell Health in New York City, told Healio.
Milanaik and colleagues analyzed metadata collected from the first TikTok videos listed under the hashtags #birthcontrol and #birthcontrolproblems using an Apify web scraper. The team coded each video’s caption, spoken content, hashtags and other features to identify mentions of birth control, type of birth control, birth control brand, adverse events and the profession of the video creator.
Final analyses included 223 videos with 507,334,145 views, with the largest proportion of videos discussing contraception generally (n = 69; 30.9%), followed by contraceptive pills (n = 57; 25.6%) and IUDs (n = 30; 13.5%).
Adverse events were discussed in 148 videos, only five (3.4%) of which were created by licensed health care professionals. Videos created by health care professionals had 14,503,377 views. The rest of these videos were created by homeopaths/naturopaths (n = 16; 10.8%) and laypeople (n = 124; 83.8%), which had 7,752,613 and 139,183,228 views, respectively.
Videos discussing the adverse events of birth control listed mental health effects (n = 39; 26.4%) and weight gain (n = 32; 21.6%) most often, although they also discussed mood and hormonal issues, brain fog, cancer, polycystic ovary syndrome, urinary tract infections, fertility issues and gastrointestinal issues.
“Physicians should be aware that platforms that are widely used by adolescents can potentially influence health decisions and/or be a powerful tool for disseminating accurate health information,” Milanaik said.
The researchers suggested that health care professionals advise patients to speak to professionals for medical resources rather than consult social media.
Additionally, Milanaik said that “future research should identify whether there are differences between social media platforms in terms of how medical information is viewed and disseminated.”
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Lin A, et al. Abstract O2004. Presented at: AAP National Conference & Exhibition; Oct. 7-11, 2022; Anaheim, California.
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