Laser refractive surgery on TikTok: A DISCERN-based quality assessment

Purpose To evaluate the quality of healthcare-related information on laser refractive surgery (LRS), including laser in situ keratomileusis (LASIK) and photorefractive keratectomy (PRK), among healthcare professionals (HCP) and non-healthcare professionals (NHCP) on TikTok using the DISCERN criteria. Materials and Methods In this study, searches of the top 100 results each of “LASIK” and “PRK” were conducted. The video results of 154 LASIK and PRK videos were evaluated for user engagement and content quality using the DISCERN criteria. Results The sources of LRS information were ophthalmologists (39.6%), optometrists (3.2%), and non-healthcare professionals (57.1%). User engagement had a combined 9.1 million likes, 79,000 comments, 187,000 shares, and 611,500 saves. DISCERN Criteria analysis revealed that videos by HCP had an average summation score of 34.03 (poor quality), with statistically significantly higher scores in 6 out of 15 categories, compared to 30.72 (poor quality) for videos by NHCP (p < 0.01). LASIK videos had higher viewership and user engagement than PRK videos. The PRK videos performed better in the additional treatment options category. Discussion The DISCERN criteria is useful for assessing the LRS video quality on TikTok. LRS is a popular topic on the platform, with LASIK topics being more popular than PRK topics. Although HCP scored higher in many DISCERN metrics, most videos among both HCP and NHCP were considered poor quality, and only a minority were considered fair or good quality. HCP should be cognizant of the quality of medical information produced and available to patients on social media platforms.