Quality and Characteristics of Short Spanish-Language Videos on Social Media About Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus.

BACKGROUND

Social media has become a common source of educational information on type 2 diabetes. However, evidence regarding the quality of this content remains limited. This study evaluated the quality of short Spanish-language videos about type 2 diabetes published on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube.

METHODS

A cross-sectional study analysed 400 short videos, including the top-ranked videos identified per platform (n = 100 each), collected between March 4 and 25, 2026. Spanish-language short-form videos (≤ 10 min) on type 2 diabetes intended for a general audience were included, while promotional or humourous content was excluded. Informational quality was assessed using the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) benchmark criteria and the Global Quality Score (GQS).

RESULTS

Overall, quality was low, with a mean GQS score of 2.5 ± 0.82 (on a 5-point scale) and low adherence to JAMA criteria, including authorship (35.5%), attribution (5.8%), and disclosure (1.0%). In multivariable analysis, videos on YouTube (β: 0.6; 95% CI: 0.3-0.8) and Instagram (β: 0.3; 95% CI: 0.1-0.5) had higher GQS scores compared with TikTok. Videos featuring a health professional were also associated with higher GQS scores (β: 0.4; 95% CI: 0.2-0.6). Compared with videos shorter than 30 s, videos lasting 31-60 s (β: 0.3; 95% CI: 0.0-0.6), 61-120 s (β: 0.5; 95% CI: 0.2-0.8), and more than 120 s (β: 0.7; 95% CI: 0.4-1.0) had higher GQS scores.

CONCLUSION

Spanish-language type 2 diabetes-related videos on social media generally showed low quality. Higher quality was associated with content featuring healthcare professionals, longer video duration, and platforms such as YouTube and Instagram.