Quality assessment of lupus nephritis health information on China’s mainstream short-form video platforms: A cross-sectional study

Lupus nephritis (LN) is an important cause of end-stage renal disease. Recently, more and more patients have been accessing LN-related health information through TikTok and Bilibili, but the quality of the content is uneven. This cross-sectional study aims to systematically evaluate the content quality of LN-related short videos on these 2 major platforms. On December 13, 2025, we searched for “LN” in Chinese on TikTok and Bilibili and obtained the top 100 results from each platform. After screening, 159 videos were analyzed. The Global Quality Score (GQS) and modified DISCERN (mDISCERN) scales were used for multidimensional quality evaluation, and the correlation between video characteristics and interaction metrics was analyzed. The results showed that Bilibili’s videos had significantly longer durations (median: 486 seconds vs TikTok’s 82.5 seconds) and higher GQS scores (median: 3.00 vs 2.00, P <.05). After adjusting for confounding factors, there was no significant difference in GQS (odds ratio = 1.40, 95% confidence interval: 0.43–4.64) or mDISCERN (odds ratio = 0.78, 95% confidence interval: 0.28–2.16) between TikTok and Bilibili. TikTok videos were more interactive, receiving more likes, shares, and comments. The content on both platforms mainly focused on “treatment” and “symptoms” while rarely covering topics such as “prevention” and “epidemiology.” A positive correlation was found between content quality and the professional background of the creator: the median GQS and mDISCERN scores for videos released by professional clinicians were 3.00, whereas those for individual users were only 1.00. In addition, audience interaction was negatively correlated with content quality. In summary, videos on both Bilibili and TikTok demonstrated modest overall quality.