Insufficient quality of mental health information on German-speaking TikTok: A content analysis

Background: The increasing popularity of mental-health information on social media platforms such as TikTok is raising concerns regarding misinformation. Previous research is limited to single disorders and videos in the English language only. Our objective was to investigate the quality of mental health information on German-language TikTok for a broader spectrum of disorders. Method: Thirty German-language TikTok-videos of each of the six most viewed hashtags on mental disorders (attention-deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), depression, autism, anxiety disorder, narcissism and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)) were classified regarding authorship and rated either as “correct”, “overgeneralized”, “incorrect” or “subjective experience”. The modified DISCERN (mDISCERN) and the Global Quality Scale (GQS) were used to rate reliability and quality of information for patients. Results: The 177 videos finally included in this study gathered a total of 94,348,220 views and 19.2% (n = 34) of the videos were rated as correct, 33.3% (n = 59) as incorrect, 18.1% (n = 32) as overgeneralized and 29.4% (n = 52) as personal experience. Chi-Square tests and Kruskal-Wallis tests showed significant relationships between either authorship or diagnosis and quality and reliability. Videos on PTSD and videos by expert authors showed the best and videos on narcissism and videos by laypeople the worst overall results. Conclusion: With around half of the analyzed videos supplying incorrect information, the quality of German-language TikTok mental health content is insufficient. Differences in the quality of content seem to be influenced by the topic and the authorship. Healthcare institutions and clinicians should be aware of this, educate patients accordingly, and could improve the quality of information by participating in online discourses.