JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Social media are increasingly leveraged by researchers to engage in public debates and to rapidly disseminate research results to healthcare providers, healthcare users, policymakers, educators, and the general public. This article contributes to growing literature on the use of social media for digital knowledge mobilization, drawing particular attention to TikTok and its unique potential for collaborative knowledge mobilization with underserved communities who experience barriers to healthcare and health inequities (e.g., equity-seeking groups). Setting the TikTok platform apart from other social media are unique audio-visual video editing tools, together with an impactful algorithm, making possible knowledge dissemination and exchange with large global audiences. As an exemplar, we discuss digital knowledge mobilization with transgender and nonbinary (trans) communities, a population who experience barriers to healthcare and who are engaged in significant peer-to-peer health information sharing online. To demonstrate, analytics data from 13 selected TikTok videos on the topic of gender-affirming medicine (e.g., hormonal therapy and surgeries) research are presented to illustrate how knowledge is disseminated within the trans community via TikTok. Considerations for researchers planning to use TikTok for digital knowledge mobilization and other related community engagement with equity-seeking groups are also discussed. These include: the limitations of TikTok analytics data for measuring knowledge mobilization; population-specific concerns related to community safety on social media; the spread of disinformation; barriers to internet access; and commercialization and intellectual property issues. This article concludes that TikTok is an innovative social media platform presenting possibilities to achieve transformative, community-engaged knowledge mobilization between researchers, underserved healthcare users, and their healthcare providers—all of which are necessary to achieve better healthcare and population health outcomes.