Currently submitted to: JMIR Diabetes
Date Submitted: Jun 23, 2026
Open Peer Review Period: Jul 2, 2026 - Aug 27, 2026
(currently open for review)
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
The Quality and Reliability of Gestational Diabetes Mellitus information on TikTok and Bilibili in China: A cross-sectional study
ABSTRACT
Background:
Short videos related to gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) are widely disseminated on social media platforms, but their content quality and reliability remain unclear. Differences in information quality across platforms and the relationship between user engagement and scientific accuracy require further evaluation.
Objective:
To compare the content quality, reliability, and user engagement of GDM-related short videos on TikTok and Bilibili, and to analyze the impact of information sources on video quality, in order to provide evidence for improving online health information.
Methods:
In this cross-sectional study, 200 GDM-related videos from TikTok and Bilibili were evaluated. Assessment metrics included user engagement (likes, comments, etc.), video duration, JAMA score (reliability), Global Quality Score (GQS), mDISCERN score (credibility), and information source (professional vs. nonprofessional).
Results:
TikTok videos showed higher user engagement, while Bilibili videos were longer and had higher JAMA scores. Overall quality (GQS, mDISCERN) did not differ significantly between platforms. Notably, 80% of TikTok videos came from professional sources, compared to only 45% on Bilibili, where nonprofessionals predominated (55%). Professional sources produced significantly higher quality content, whereas social interaction‑focused videos had the lowest quality. User engagement did not correlate with content quality or reliability on either platform, revealing a disconnect between popularity and scientific accuracy.
Conclusions:
The overall quality of GDM-related short videos was moderate. The overrepresentation of nonprofessional, low-quality content on Bilibili and the prevalence of engagement‑driven but inaccurate content on both platforms highlight urgent needs for stronger platform governance, evidence‑based content standards, and targeted public health strategies to improve GDM information and protect maternal and infant health.
Citation
Request queued. Please wait while the file is being generated. It may take some time.
Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.