School of Podiatric Medicine - Medical Student Research
Document Type
Poster
Publication Date
Spring 4-27-2025
Abstract
Introduction: Peripheral nerve surgery is a therapeutic modality for many diagnoses, such as nerve compression syndromes, peripheral neuropathy, and neuroma. In response to the increasing number of people seeking health information on social media, this study explores public perceptions of peripheral nerve surgery on the social media platform TikTok (1). Conclusions from this study may provide insight to medical personnel looking to use social media to improve patient education.
Methods: A new TikTok account was used to search “Peripheral Nerve Surgery.” The top 25 posts, including sponsored advertisements, were analyzed based on number of likes and comments, relevance, type, authorship, language, and accuracy to Association of Extremity Nerve Surgeons Clinical Practice Guidelines v. 2.0. (2). Additionally, posts were evaluated for understandability and actionability using the Patient Education Materials Assessment Tool (PEMAT) (3).
Results: Of the analyzed TikTok posts, 44% were educational, 36% described personal experiences, and 20% were promotional. Notably, 68% of posts were posted by medical personnel, with 75% of “personal experience” posts also attributed to them. 100% of posts by businesses were promotional, with an average PEMAT of 71% understandability and 86.8% actionability. Educational posts by medical personnel had lower average PEMAT scores: 63% understandability and 30% actionability.
Conclusions: TikTok posts were mostly used educationally to bring awareness to peripheral nerve surgery. However, promotional content demonstrated better understandability scores than educational posts by medical personnel. Improving the clarity of these educational videos could enhance public perception and patient health literacy for peripheral nerve surgery. Future research could explore or compare other social media sites, analyze larger datasets, and review more granular metrics.
Recommended Citation
Mehaffey, Madeleine G.; Obias, Nicholas; Hughes, James; and Gouin, John, "From Likes to Insights: Perceptions of Peripheral Nerve Surgery on TikTok" (2025). School of Podiatric Medicine - Medical Student Research. 7.
https://scholarworks.utrgv.edu/sopm_mspub/7
