Health information about Tiktok can be misleading
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More than half of the claims made in the popular Tiktok video regarding attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are not in line with clinical guidelines.
ADHD affects Approximately 1% According to the global burden of disease research, people all over the world. There is a positive debate about whether ADHD is underdiagnosed. Some psychologists say there can be a substantial proportion of people who have it.
To understand the impact of social media on ADHD perceptions, Vasileia Karasavva The University of British Columbia (UBC), Canada, and her colleagues watched the 100 most viewed videos on Tiktok on January 10, 2023 using the hashtag #ADHD.
The average video included three claims about ADHD. The researchers presented their own claims to two psychologists. He was asked if it accurately reflected the symptoms of ADHD from DSM-5, a popular textbook used to diagnose mental disorders. Only 48.7% of the claims met that requirement. More than two-thirds of the video attributed ADHD to the problems that psychologists said were reflecting “normal human experiences.”
“We asked two experts to watch the top 100 most popular videos, and we found that they didn't really match the empirical literature,” says Karasavva. “We're like, 'OK, this is the problem.' ”
The researchers asked psychologists to rate the video on a scale of 0-5. We then asked 843 UBC students to describe the videos evaluated by psychologists as five best and five worst ADHDs, and then rated them before rating them. Psychologists earned a more clinically accurate video on an average of 3.6, while students rated it at 2.8. In the least-savvy video, students gave an average score of 2.3 compared to 1.1 from psychologists.
Students were also asked whether they would recommend video and their perception of the prevalence of ADHD in society. “The amount of time you watched ADHD-related content on Tiktok has increased your chances of recommending videos and identifying them as useful and accurate,” says Karasavva.
“They are the ones who wonder how common the outcomes are for Tiktok or all the health content on the internet.” David Ellis At the University of Bath, UK. “We live in a world where we know a lot about health, but the online world is still full of misinformation. Tiktok only reflects that reality to us.”
Ellis says that medical misinformation is likely to be even higher given mental health issues, as diagnosis is based on observation rather than more objective testing.
However, banning ADHD videos on Tiktok is “no use.” Even if it's misinformation, Karasavva says. “Maybe more experts should put out more videos, or maybe it's just that they're doing it for themselves because they're a little more discernible and critical of the content they consume,” she says.
Thichtok declined to comment on the details of the study, New Scientist Anyone who takes action against medical misinformation and seeks advice on neurological conditions should contact a medical professional.
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Source: www.newscientist.com
