Do you have depression? A summative content analysis of mental health-related content on TikTok
Background TikTok is a global social media platform with over 1 billion active users. Presently, there are few data on how TikTok users navigate the platform for mental health purposes and the content they view. Objective This study aims to understand the patterns of mental health-related content on...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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SAGE Publishing
2025-01-01
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| Series: | Digital Health |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1177/20552076241297062 |
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| author | Roxanne Turuba Marco Zenone Raman Srivastava Jonathan Stea Yuri Quintana Nikki Ow Kirsten Marchand Amanda Kwan Anna-Joy Ong Xiaoxu Ding Cassia Warren Alessandro R Marcon Jo Henderson Steve Mathias Skye Barbic |
| author_facet | Roxanne Turuba Marco Zenone Raman Srivastava Jonathan Stea Yuri Quintana Nikki Ow Kirsten Marchand Amanda Kwan Anna-Joy Ong Xiaoxu Ding Cassia Warren Alessandro R Marcon Jo Henderson Steve Mathias Skye Barbic |
| author_sort | Roxanne Turuba |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Background TikTok is a global social media platform with over 1 billion active users. Presently, there are few data on how TikTok users navigate the platform for mental health purposes and the content they view. Objective This study aims to understand the patterns of mental health-related content on TikTok and assesses the accuracy and quality of the advice and information provided. Methods We performed a summative content analysis on the top 1000 TikTok videos with the hashtag #mentalhealth between October 12 and 16, 2021. Six content themes were developed to code the data: (1) a personal story, perspective, or confessional, (2) advice and information, (3) emoting, (4) references to death, (5) references to science or research, and (6) a product or service for sale. Advice and information were further assessed by clinical experts. Results A total of 970 mental health-related videos were pulled for our analysis ( n = 30 removed due to non-English content). The most prevalent content themes included a personal story, perspective, or confessional ( n = 574), advice and information ( n = 319), emoting ( n = 198), references to death ( n = 128). Advice and information were considered misleading in 33.0% of videos ( n = 106), with misleading content performing better. Few videos included references to scientific evidence or research ( n = 37). Conclusion Healthcare practitioners and researchers may consider increasing their presence on the platform to promote the dissemination of evidence-based information to a wider and more youth-targeted population. Interventions to reduce the amount of misinformation on the platform and increase people's ability to discern between anecdotal and evidence-based information are also warranted. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-822cdce663c846e9b53a7d4111df3aad |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2055-2076 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | SAGE Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Digital Health |
| spelling | doaj-art-822cdce663c846e9b53a7d4111df3aad2025-01-17T17:04:04ZengSAGE PublishingDigital Health2055-20762025-01-011110.1177/20552076241297062Do you have depression? A summative content analysis of mental health-related content on TikTokRoxanne Turuba0Marco Zenone1Raman Srivastava2Jonathan Stea3Yuri Quintana4Nikki Ow5Kirsten Marchand6Amanda Kwan7Anna-Joy Ong8Xiaoxu Ding9Cassia Warren10Alessandro R Marcon11Jo Henderson12Steve Mathias13Skye Barbic14 Foundry, , Vancouver, BC, Canada Health Law Institute, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada Department of Psychiatry, , Vancouver, BC, Canada Department of Psychology, , Calgary, AB, Canada , Harvard University, Boston, MA, USA Foundry, , Vancouver, BC, Canada Centre for Advancing Health Outcomes, Vancouver, BC, Canada Foundry, , Vancouver, BC, Canada Foundry, , Vancouver, BC, Canada Department of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy, , Vancouver, BC, Canada Foundry, , Vancouver, BC, Canada Department of Psychology, , Calgary, AB, Canada Margaret and Wallace McCain Centre for Child, Youth and Family Mental Health, , Toronto, ON, Canada Centre for Advancing Health Outcomes, Vancouver, BC, Canada Centre for Advancing Health Outcomes, Vancouver, BC, CanadaBackground TikTok is a global social media platform with over 1 billion active users. Presently, there are few data on how TikTok users navigate the platform for mental health purposes and the content they view. Objective This study aims to understand the patterns of mental health-related content on TikTok and assesses the accuracy and quality of the advice and information provided. Methods We performed a summative content analysis on the top 1000 TikTok videos with the hashtag #mentalhealth between October 12 and 16, 2021. Six content themes were developed to code the data: (1) a personal story, perspective, or confessional, (2) advice and information, (3) emoting, (4) references to death, (5) references to science or research, and (6) a product or service for sale. Advice and information were further assessed by clinical experts. Results A total of 970 mental health-related videos were pulled for our analysis ( n = 30 removed due to non-English content). The most prevalent content themes included a personal story, perspective, or confessional ( n = 574), advice and information ( n = 319), emoting ( n = 198), references to death ( n = 128). Advice and information were considered misleading in 33.0% of videos ( n = 106), with misleading content performing better. Few videos included references to scientific evidence or research ( n = 37). Conclusion Healthcare practitioners and researchers may consider increasing their presence on the platform to promote the dissemination of evidence-based information to a wider and more youth-targeted population. Interventions to reduce the amount of misinformation on the platform and increase people's ability to discern between anecdotal and evidence-based information are also warranted.https://doi.org/10.1177/20552076241297062 |
| spellingShingle | Roxanne Turuba Marco Zenone Raman Srivastava Jonathan Stea Yuri Quintana Nikki Ow Kirsten Marchand Amanda Kwan Anna-Joy Ong Xiaoxu Ding Cassia Warren Alessandro R Marcon Jo Henderson Steve Mathias Skye Barbic Do you have depression? A summative content analysis of mental health-related content on TikTok Digital Health |
| title | Do you have depression? A summative content analysis of mental health-related content on TikTok |
| title_full | Do you have depression? A summative content analysis of mental health-related content on TikTok |
| title_fullStr | Do you have depression? A summative content analysis of mental health-related content on TikTok |
| title_full_unstemmed | Do you have depression? A summative content analysis of mental health-related content on TikTok |
| title_short | Do you have depression? A summative content analysis of mental health-related content on TikTok |
| title_sort | do you have depression a summative content analysis of mental health related content on tiktok |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1177/20552076241297062 |
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