TikTok and #OccupationalTherapy: Cross-sectional Study (Preprint)

Abstract

BACKGROUND Health care professionals have utilized the social media platform TikTok as a means of educating individuals worldwide through short-form videos. In the last year, #occupationaltherapy has been accessed millions of times on TikTok, however, presently there is no evidence investigating how occupational therapy information and knowledge is shared on the platform. OBJECTIVE The purpose of this cross-sectional study is to describe the content of TikTok videos with the hashtag #occupationaltherapy and investigate how occupational therapy is being portrayed. METHODS We analyzed the top 500 videos on TikTok with the hashtag #occupationaltherapy to identify what information is being shared. Researchers completed a content and sentiment analysis to identify the most common themes relevant to occupational therapy and the overall sentiment of the videos. RESULTS As of May 2022, the videos in our sample (n=500) were viewed over 175,000,000 times. Education (n= 210) and occupational therapy treatment (n=146) were the two most prevalent content themes. The overall sentiment of the videos was positive (n=302). The most frequently observed practice settings in the videos were pediatrics (n=133) and generalists (n=133). Most videos did not state that it was occupational therapy (n=222) or misused the hashtag (n=131). CONCLUSIONS TikTok has the potential to be used by occupational therapy to share innovations and best practices, build communities of practice, and engage in collaborative efforts to share information about our role with diverse populations. However, attention is needed to monitor quality control of content and guide how information is shared over time. CLINICALTRIAL n/a