Content characteristics and informational reliability of postoperative pain–related videos on TikTok and Bilibili: a cross-sectional study

Postoperative pain is common and clinically important. Poor pain control may delay recovery, increase readmission risk, contribute to chronic postsurgical pain, and impair long-term quality of life. Meanwhile, patients and caregivers increasingly seek pain-related information on short-video platforms, but the quality and reliability of such content remain unclear. This cross-sectional study screened the first 150 videos returned under default settings on TikTok and Bilibili using the keyword “postoperative pain” on November 21, 2025. Eligible videos were Mandarin-language, publicly accessible, and original. Quality and reliability were assessed using the Global Quality Scale (GQS) and modified DISCERN (mDISCERN). Content was coded into 6 thematic domains, and uploaders were classified as specialized healthcare professionals (SHPs), non-specialized healthcare professionals (non-SHPs), or general users. A total of 258 videos were included. Overall informational quality and reliability were moderate, with median GQS and mDISCERN scores of 3.0 (interquartile range [IQR], 2.0–3.0) and 3.0 (IQR, 2.0–3.0), respectively. Across thematic coding instances, clinical manifestations, treatment, diagnosis, and etiology were most prominent, whereas epidemiology and prognosis were underrepresented. Compared with TikTok videos, Bilibili videos were longer but had fewer likes, collections, comments, and shares (all P < 0.001), while GQS and mDISCERN scores were similar between platforms. Videos uploaded by SHPs had significantly higher quality and reliability than those uploaded by non-SHPs or general users. Engagement indicators were weakly inversely correlated with GQS and mDISCERN. Postoperative pain–related videos on TikTok and Bilibili showed uneven topic coverage and only moderate overall quality. Although videos from SHPs were more reliable, important content areas remained underrepresented. Greater professional participation and evidence-based content governance may improve the quality of postoperative pain information on short-video platforms.