Quality evaluation of health science popularization short videos related to cerebrovascular diseases on popular short video platforms in China: cross-sectional study

Background Health science popularization short videos have become one of the main sources of acquiring disease-related information. However, the quality of such videos on popular short video platforms varies considerably. This study aims to evaluate the quality of the health science popularization short videos about cerebrovascular diseases on two popular short video platforms (TikTok and Kuaishou) in China. Methods Using Python web crawler, short videos related to cerebrovascular diseases were collected from TikTok and Kuaishou in China, posted from December 10th, 2023, to December 10th, 2024. Ultimately, 915 valid videos were included. Two clinical experts evaluated the quality of the included videos using GQS, mDISCERN, and PEMAT-A/V independently. The median (IQR) was used to describe the features of the short videos, and the Kruskal-Wallis test was used to evaluate the differences between groups. Correlation analysis and the Random Forest regression model were applied to investigate the correlation between the features and the quality score of short videos. Results Health science popularization short videos related to cerebrovascular diseases on the TikTok platform showed significantly more likes, favorites, comments, and shares ( p < 0.001). The videos on TikTok had a median score of 3 on mDISCERN, a median score of 3 on GQS, a median Understandability score of 65.38%, and a median Actionability score of 50%, all of which were significantly higher than those on Kuaishou. There were strong correlations between video duration and mDISCERN score ( r = 0.219, p < 0.001), GQS ( r = 0.495, p < 0.001), Understandability score ( r = 0.282, p < 0.001), and Actionability score ( r = 0.361, p < 0.001). The four Random Forest regression models for video quality scores demonstrated favorable fitting performance, with R 2 values ranging from 0.862 to 0.903. Conclusion Health science popularization short videos related to cerebrovascular diseases on TikTok and Kuaishou showed a moderate quality, and the quality of the health science popularization short videos on TikTok was better than those on Kuaishou. Video duration was a key determinant of video quality.