Back to 2024 Abstracts
The Quality of Information About Body Dysmorphia on TikTok: A Call for Action
Benjamin Rahmani
1, Amir-Ala Mahmoud
1, Sujay Rajkumar
2, John Park
1, James Fanning
1, Jerry Chidester
3, Bernard Lee
1
1Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, USA; 2Drexel University College of Medicine, USA; 3The Plastics Clinic, USA
Background: With the rise of social media as a knowledge sharing resource, patients increasingly obtain information regarding plastic surgery online. Publicly shared posts may influence active users' desire to undergo procedures and misinform their expectations, which is of particular importance in patients with body dysmorphic disorder (BDD), who may already suffer from an altered mentality of their appearance. To date, no study has assessed the quality of information about BDD on TikTok. Thus, our study aimed to evaluate the usefulness and quality of the greatest trending TikTok videos related to BDD and plastic surgery.
Methods: A search was conducted on TikTok using keywords "body dysmorphia", "body dysmorphia plastic surgery" and "dysmorphophobia", and the top 15 trending videos in each category were selected. Two expert reviewers assessed the videos using the DISCERN and Global Quality Score (GQS) evaluation tools (Table 1).
Results: The mean±SD DISCERN score across all videos was 22.66±8.62. Videos uploaded by certified healthcare accounts (11/45) had a mean±SD score of 29.87±8.85, indicating a "poor" grade. These scores were significantly higher than those uploaded by non-healthcare accounts, which received a mean±SD score of 20.32±7.17, reflecting a "very poor" grade (p<0.0001). The overall GQS mean±SD was 1.96±1.11, with uploads from health care professionals scoring significantly higher than uploads from non-health care professionals [3.00±1.34 vs. 1.62±0.78, p<0.0001].
Conclusion: With the increasing prevalence of BDD and social media usage, vulnerable individuals may be prone to comparing themselves to others, potentially further impacting their self-image and driving them towards a more permanent, surgical solution. These findings highlight the suboptimal BDD-related content on TikTok, stressing the potential for further disease development in this at-risk population. As plastic surgeons ascertain whether a patient is a candidate for cosmetic surgery, directing them to reliable resources can ensure proper education and foster realistic expectations.
Back to 2024 Abstracts
