Analysis: Few Dermatologists Share Sun Protection Advice on TikTok

A new analysis in the Journal of Drugs in Dermatology shows a significant gap in the presence of board-certified dermatologists (BCDs) on TikTok, particularly concerning sun protection content.

"Limited studies have analyzed sources of TikTok videos associated with sun safety and skin cancer, the most prevalent form of cancer in the United States," the authors wrote in the study. "Therefore, we sought to determine the proportion of videos produced by board-certified dermatologists (BCDs) on these topics."

The study researchers looked at TikTok videos associated with sun safety from August 25 to August 27, 2023, and used hashtags such as #sunscreen, #sunprotection, #spf, #skincancer, and #skinprotection. The top 100 videos in each category were reviewed and categorized based on creator.

Only 16.6% of the videos were produced by BCDs, the study revealed. The predominant content creators were beauty bloggers/vloggers (38.7% of the videos), followed by patients/consumers (33.7%). Just 2.8% of the videos specifically addressed skin of color (SOC).

"This highlights a gap in the type of educational content generated by dermatologists on TikTok, with sun safety being a potential subject to target within social media," the authors concluded. "Additionally, the small representation of videos addressing SOC patients underscores the need for more diverse and inclusive educational skincare content on TikTok."

Source: Lin R, et al. Journal of Drugs in Dermatology. 2024;23(7):8179.