#WhatIEatinaDay: The Quality, Accuracy, and Engagement of Nutrition Content on TikTok

Michelle Zeng · Jacqueline Grgurevic · Rayan Diyab · Rajshri Roy

43 citations0/0 files storedNutrients

No readable copy stored yet — this record is metadata only.

No open-access location is known for this record yet.

Literature note Cite in a project Citation map

Social Media in Health Education Misinformation and Its Impacts Health Literacy and Information Accessibility

Abstract

Background: Social media platforms such as TikTok are significant sources of nutrition information for adolescents and young adults, who are vulnerable to unregulated, algorithm-driven content. This often spreads nutrition misinformation, impacting adolescent and young adult health and dietary behaviors. Objectives: While previous research has explored misinformation on other platforms, TikTok remains underexamined, so this study aimed at evaluating the landscape of nutrition-related content on TikTok. Methods: This study evaluated TikTok nutrition-related content by (1) identifying common nutrition topics and content creator types; (2) assessing the quality and accuracy of content using evidence-based frameworks, and (3) analyzing engagement metrics such as likes, comments, and shares. Results: The most common creators were health and wellness influencers (32%) and fitness creators (18%). Recipes (31%) and weight loss (34%) dominated the list of topics. When evaluating TikTok posts for quality, 82% of applicable posts lacked transparent advertising, 77% failed to disclose conflicts of interest, 63% promoted stereotypical attitudes, 55% did not provide evidence-based information, 75% lacked balanced and accurate content, and 90% failed to point out the risk and benefits of the advice presented. A total of 36% of posts were considered completely accurate, while 24% were mostly inaccurate, and 18% completely inaccurate. No statistical significance was associated between the level of accuracy or evidence and engagement metrics (p > 0.05). Conclusions: TikTok prioritizes engagement over accuracy, exposing adolescents to harmful nutrition misinformation. Stricter moderation and evidence-based nutrition content are essential to protect adolescent and young adult health. Future research should explore interventions to reduce the impact of misinformation on adolescent dietary behaviors and mental well-being.

Paper brief

Loading…

Cite this work

Citation unavailable for this work.

BibTeX RIS CSL-JSON

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Citations in this library

Citation map →

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 43 citations exist upstream.

References

2018PRISMA Extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR): Checklist and Explanation 2018The spread of low-credibility content by social bots 2020Evaluating the Impact of Attempts to Correct Health Misinformation on Social Media: A Meta-Analysis 2021TikTok as a Health Information Source: Assessment of the Quality of Information in Diabetes-Related Videos 2023The social media diet: A scoping review to investigate the association between social media, body image and eating disorders amongst young people 2016Social media and digital technology use among Indigenous young people in Australia: a literature review 2018“I aspire to look and feel healthy like the posts convey”: engagement with fitness inspiration on social media and perceptions of its influence on health and wellbeing 2020Boosting Health Campaign Reach and Engagement Through Use of Social Media Influencers and Memes

Explore the map →

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.

Imported from OpenAlex (CC0) — nothing here is generated.