Promoting Mask Use on TikTok: Descriptive, Cross-sectional Study.
JMIR Public Health Surveill
; 7(2): e26392, 2021 02 12.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1080690
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
Over the past decade, there has been an increasing secular trend in the number of studies on social media and health.OBJECTIVE:
The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to examine the content and characteristics of TikTok videos that are related to an important aspect of community mitigation-the use of masks as a method for interrupting the transmission of SARS-CoV-2.METHODS:
In total, 100 trending videos with the hashtag #WearAMask (ie, a campaign on TikTok), along with 32 videos that were posted by the World Health Organization (WHO) and involved masks in any way (ie, all related WHO videos at the time of this study), were included in our sample. We collected the metadata of each post, and created content categories based on fact sheets that were provided by the WHO and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. We used these fact sheets to code the characteristics of mask use.RESULTS:
Videos that were posted on TikTok and had the hashtag #WearAMask garnered almost 500 million views, and videos that were posted by the WHO garnered almost 57 million views. Although the ratio of the number of trending #WearAMask videos to the number of WHO videos was around 31, the #WearAMask videos received almost 10 times as many cumulative views as the WHO videos. In total, 68% (68/100) of the trending #WearAMask videos involved humor and garnered over 355 million cumulative views. However, only 9% (3/32) of the WHO videos involved humor. Furthermore, 27% (27/100) of the trending #WearAMask videos involved dance and garnered over 130 million cumulative views, whereas none of the WHO videos involved dance.CONCLUSIONS:
This study is one of the first to describe how TikTok is being used to mitigate the community spread of COVID-19 by promoting mask use. Due to the platform's incredible reach, TikTok has great potential in conveying important public health messages to various segments of the population.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Social Media
/
COVID-19
/
Health Promotion
/
Masks
Type of study:
Observational study
/
Randomized controlled trials
Limits:
Humans
Language:
English
Journal:
JMIR Public Health Surveill
Year:
2021
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
26392
Similar
MEDLINE
...
LILACS
LIS