Videos on Bilibili, TikTok, and Xiaohongshu as Sources of Medical Information for Adenoid Hypertrophy: A Cross-Sectional Content Analysis (Preprint)

BACKGROUND The clinical diagnosis rate of adenoid hypertrophy in children has been rising continuously in recent years, attracting great attention from parents. There are many popular science videos about adenoid hypertrophy on short video platforms such as Bilibili, TikTok, and Xiaohongshu. It is worth noting that the quality and reliability of the popular science content related to adenoid hypertrophy on these platforms remain unknown. OBJECTIVE This study aimed to evaluate the completeness, understandability, actionability, reliability, and overall quality of short videos on adenoid hypertrophy from Bilibili, TikTok, and Xiaohongshu. METHODS Collected 220 adenoid hypertrophy videos from three platforms,two researchers independently assessed quality using content completeness,PEMAT-A/V, modified DISCERN, and GQS. Cross-platform comparisons and Spearman’s correlation were performed. RESULTS Bilibili videos had the longest median duration (113.50 s) and significantly outperformed TikTok and Xiaohongshu videos in terms of completeness, understandability, and reliability (p<0.05), achieving the highest overall quality. Xiaohongshu videos showed greater interactivity and actionability than those on Bilibili and TikTok. Videos produced by medical professionals are easier to understand. Correlation analysis revealed a strong positive correlation between the video duration and completeness (ρ=0.641). Interaction indicators showed high correlations among themselves (ρ>0.8) but no significant correlation with duration (ρ≤0.2).Notably, no substantial relationship was observed between the interaction indicators and video quality. CONCLUSIONS The content, reliability, and quality of videos on adenoid hypertrophy across short video platforms are unsatisfactory and need improvement.Overall, Bilibili provides the highest video quality and Xiaohongshu excels in interactivity. Videos produced by medical professionals are easier to understand. Platforms should enhance oversight and optimize algorithms to promote high-quality health video content.