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Community Mitigation of COVID-19 and Portrayal of Testing on TikTok: Descriptive Study.
Basch, Corey H; Mohlman, Jan; Fera, Joseph; Tang, Hao; Pellicane, Alessia; Basch, Charles E.
  • Basch CH; Department of Public Health, William Paterson University, Wayne, NJ, United States.
  • Mohlman J; Department of Psychology, William Paterson University, Wayne, NJ, United States.
  • Fera J; Department of Mathematics, Lehman College, The City University of New York, Bronx, NY, United States.
  • Tang H; Department of Health and Behavior Studies, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, NY, United States.
  • Pellicane A; Department of Public Health, William Paterson University, Wayne, NJ, United States.
  • Basch CE; Department of Health and Behavior Studies, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, NY, United States.
JMIR Public Health Surveill ; 7(6): e29528, 2021 06 10.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-2197929
ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND:

COVID-19 testing remains an essential element of a comprehensive strategy for community mitigation. Social media is a popular source of information about health, including COVID-19 and testing information. One of the most popular communication channels used by adolescents and young adults who search for health information is TikTok-an emerging social media platform.

OBJECTIVE:

The purpose of this study was to describe TikTok videos related to COVID-19 testing.

METHODS:

The hashtag #covidtesting was searched, and the first 100 videos were included in the study sample. At the time the sample was drawn, these 100 videos garnered more than 50% of the views for all videos cataloged under the hashtag #covidtesting. The content characteristics that were coded included mentions, displays, or suggestions of anxiety, COVID-19 symptoms, quarantine, types of tests, results of test, and disgust/unpleasantness. Additional data that were coded included the number and percentage of views, likes, and comments and the use of music, dance, and humor.

RESULTS:

The 100 videos garnered more than 103 million views; 111,000 comments; and over 12.8 million likes. Even though only 44 videos mentioned or suggested disgust/unpleasantness and 44 mentioned or suggested anxiety, those that portrayed tests as disgusting/unpleasant garnered over 70% of the total cumulative number of views (73,479,400/103,071,900, 71.29%) and likes (9,354,691/12,872,505, 72.67%), and those that mentioned or suggested anxiety attracted about 60% of the total cumulative number of views (61,423,500/103,071,900, 59.59%) and more than 8 million likes (8,339,598/12,872,505, 64.79%). Independent one-tailed t tests (α=.05) revealed that videos that mentioned or suggested that COVID-19 testing was disgusting/unpleasant were associated with receiving a higher number of views and likes.

CONCLUSIONS:

Our finding of an association between TikTok videos that mentioned or suggested that COVID-19 tests were disgusting/unpleasant and these videos' propensity to garner views and likes is of concern. There is a need for public health agencies to recognize and address connotations of COVID-19 testing on social media.
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Full text: Available Collection: International databases Database: MEDLINE Main subject: Diagnostic Tests, Routine / Social Media / COVID-19 Type of study: Diagnostic study Limits: Adolescent / Adult / Humans / Young adult Language: English Journal: JMIR Public Health Surveill Year: 2021 Document Type: Article Affiliation country: 29528

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Full text: Available Collection: International databases Database: MEDLINE Main subject: Diagnostic Tests, Routine / Social Media / COVID-19 Type of study: Diagnostic study Limits: Adolescent / Adult / Humans / Young adult Language: English Journal: JMIR Public Health Surveill Year: 2021 Document Type: Article Affiliation country: 29528