JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Short online videos are increasingly popular to disseminate fire/burn prevention, but the content quality of these short videos is unknown. We evaluated videos released in China between 2018 and 2021 to examine their adherence to professional recommendations and their public impact.

Objective:

To systematically assess the characteristics, content quality, and public impact of short videos about fire/burn prevention and first-aid in China that were published online between 2018 and 2021.

Methods:

We retrieved short videos offering both primary and secondary (first aid) information to prevent fire/burn injuries that were published on the three most popular short-video online platforms in China, TikTok, Kwai, and Bilibili. To assess the quality of video content, we calculated the proportion of short videos that included information on each of the 15 recommendations for burn prevention education from the World Health Organization (WHO) (P_1) and the proportion of videos correctly disseminating each recommendation (P_2). To assess the public impact of the short videos, we calculated the median and inter-quartile range (IQR) of three indicators: number of comments, number of likes, and number of saves as a favorite by viewers. Chi-square test, trend Chi-square test, and Kruskal-Wallis H test examined differences in indicators across the three platforms and years, and between videos disseminating correct versus incorrect information.

Results:

A total of 1,472 eligible short videos were included. The number of short videos increased by 16 times between 2018 and 2021. The proportion of short videos including each of the 15 WHO recommendations ranged from 0.00% to 77.92%. Recommendations 8, 13 and 11 had the highest proportion (77.92%, 56.66%, 54.76%, respectively), while recommendations 3 and 5 were never mentioned (0.00%). Among the short videos that included WHO recommendations, recommendations 1, 2, 4, 6, 9, and 12 were always disseminated correctly, but the other 9 recommendations were correctly disseminated in 59.22-98.69% of videos. The proportion of short videos including and correctly disseminating WHO recommendations varied across platforms and years. The public impact of short videos varied greatly across videos, with a median (IQR) of 4 (34) for number of comments, 59 (804) for number of likes, and 4 (27) for number being saved as favorites. Short videos disseminating correct recommendations had larger public impact than those disseminating either partially correct or incorrect knowledge (median number of comments 5 vs. 4, median number of likes 67 vs. 49, median number saved as favorites 5 vs. 3, Ps<0.05).

Conclusions:

Despite the rapid increase in the number of short online videos about fire/burn prevention available in China, their content quality was mixed. Systematic efforts are recommended to improve the content quality and public impact of short videos on injury prevention topics like fire and burn prevention.