Evaluating the Quality of Social Media Content on Platelet-Rich Plasma for Androgenetic Alopecia and Facial Aesthetics: A Cross-Sectional Study
Main Article Content
Keywords
platelet rich plasma, social media, PRP, alopecia, facial aesthetics, AGA
Abstract
Purpose: Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) has gained popularity on social media recently for different forms of alopecia and facial aesthetics. Patients increasingly turn to social media for medical advice to help inform their treatment choice. This study assessed the quality of content, creator type, and engagement of content on PRP.
Methods: TikTok was searched using keywords related to PRP, identifying the top 180 most-liked videos, of which 140 videos met inclusion and exclusion criteria and were analyzed for duration, views, likes, creator type, and content type. Creators were categorized as dermatologists, other physicians, non-physician health care providers (NPHCPs), or laypeople. Three reviewers assessed each video using the modified DISCERN tool. Intra-class correlation (ICC) was used to determine inter-assessor reliability. An analysis of variance (ANOVA) test was used to compare mean scores across creator categories.
Results: Most videos were created by laypeople (61%) and NPHCPs (15%), with dermatologists and other physicians contributing less (11% and 12%, respectively). Most dermatologist and other physician videos were educational, while laypeople’s content was predominantly advertisements or experience-based. Overall, video quality was very poor, with median modified-DISCERN of 1. The grading scale revealed significant differences in the quality of content. Dermatologists and other physicians scored significantly higher than laypeople (p<0.004 and <0.002, respectively) and NPHCPs (p<0.04 and <0.04, respectively) on the modified-DISCERN for androgenetic alopecia. Dermatologists and other physicians scored significantly higher than laypeople (p<0.001 and <0.001, respectively) and NPHCPs (p<0.001 and <0.001, respectively) on the modified-DISCERN for facial aesthetics.
Conclusions: This analysis reveals a significant need for improved regulation and quality of medical information shared on social media platforms and increased content production of physician created videos to ensure patient safety and informed decision making.
References
2. Villa-Ruiz C, Kassamali B, Mazori DR, Min M, Cobos G, LaChance A. Overview of TikTok’s most viewed dermatologic content and assessment of its reliability. J Am Acad Dermatol. 2021;85(1):273-274. doi:10.1016/j.jaad.2020.12.028
3. Vladulescu D, Scurtu LG, Simionescu AA, Scurtu F, Popescu MI, Simionescu O. Platelet-Rich Plasma (PRP) in Dermatology: Cellular and Molecular Mechanisms of Action. Biomedicines. 2023;12(1):7. doi:10.3390/biomedicines12010007
Article Sidebar
Article Details
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY): lets others distribute and copy the article, to create extracts, abstracts, and other revised versions, adaptations or derivative works of or from an article (such as a translation), to include in a collective work (such as an anthology), to text or data mine the article, even for commercial purposes, as long as they credit the author(s), do not represent the author as endorsing their adaptation of the article, and do not modify the article in such a way as to damage the author's honor or reputation.
Authors retain copyright in their work and license the publisher to publish the content. The publisher is the National Society for Cutaneous Medicine, with production and publishing support provided by OJS, Open Journal Systems,see https://pkp.sfu.
Prior to January 2022, authors transferred copyright to the National Society for Cutaneous Medicine. However, all articles are freely available to anyone in the world. There are no subscription fees, page charges, or article processing charges.