Dados do Trabalho

Title

TikToking infertility in Brazil

Objective

To determine the prevalence, authorship, and types of fertility-related information shared onTikTok (TT) in Brazil using hashtag and content analysis. Analysis of post content accordingto author type (healthcare professional versus lay people) and the identification of the topics that prevailed in those interactions were secondary outcomes.

Methods

We hypothesized that there is a high volume of fertility/infertility health related
content on TikTok (TT) in Brazil and that the accuracy of this content is generally poor. As such, we sought to characterize the presence of fertility/infertility -related information on TT in two ways.
1.quantify the volume of fertility/infertility related content on TT using the following hashtags: maternity, TTC (trying to conceive), IVF, endometrisis and infertility.
2.Classify the health-related content contained on these posts.Post content classifcation was determined by a single author . In instances where post characterization or accuracy were equivocal, a third author reviewed the post for adjudication.
Each post was characterized by type into:
1.educational/ scientific
2.promotional,
3.testimonial
4.entertainment.
The account from which the post was created was further characterized by account type: (personal, creator, business/clinic/industry, healthcare professional (HCP) and, physician.We also determined the number of followers, likes, comments, and shares for each post on TT.

Results

Overall we found 46 accounts that published on the topics searched: #maternity (n=10), #TTC (n=10), #endometriosis (n=10),#IVF (n=10) and infertility (n=10). Content analysis showed that the majority focused on personal testimonials (n=25), educational/scientific (n=20) and entertainment (n=5). As for authroship, most were lay individuals (n=23), followed by those reporting on their personal experience (n=11), medical doctors (n=10), healthcare professionals (n=6) and one clinic. The number of followers ranged from 89 to 4.4 milion with a mean of 3012. The account with most followers (n=4.400.000) belongs to a medical school student talking about infertility , followed by a creator account (n=1.800.000 ) on endometriosis, and third one by another medical school student (n=1.500.000 ) focused on infertility.Engagement measured by the number of likes and comments revealed that the 3 most popular topics were: (1)TTC :entertainment vídeo by a creator (1.7 milion likes, 24.700 comments, 21.900 saved, 14.900 shares; (2)maternity: entertainment vídeo by a creator (1.6 milion likes, 12.700 comments, 63.900 saved, 14.400 shares,; (3)infertility a scientific vídeo by a creator (637.900 likes, 24.300 comments, 16.500 saved, 23.900 shares, type educational.

Conclusion

The majority of infertility related TikTok posts are authored by lay people and discuss infertility and endometriosis with millions of followers. Entertainment vídeos on TTC and maternity engaged the most attention followed by a scientifc vídeo. Despite the availability of various scientific vídeos, those with personal content engaged more attention. Official healthcare presence was lacking and healthcare professionals are still a minority. TikToki s an extremely popular social media especially among young people and may represent a great opportunity to educate on relevant themes such as infertility and endometriosis. Increased healthcare professional participation is advisable. More studies examining the volume, reach and accuracy of reproductive health information available on social media such as TikTok are necessary.

Keywords

infertility, social media, tiktok, endometriosis, ivf, patient education