(103) #Vaginimsus: Exploring Vaginismus Content in the Social Media Age

Abstract Introduction Vaginismus is the recurrent or persistent inability to allow vaginal penetration such as fingers, penis or any object in the vaginal opening, despite patient desire. This leads to avoidance of such behavior and psychological distress. The rate of reported prevalence of vaginismus ranges from 7-68% but the true value is unclear due to stigma and shame surrounding the condition. Social media has emerged as a popular platform for patient education, community support and discussion regarding treatment, however, no research has been conducted to analyze the accuracy and educational quality of this content. Objective To conduct an exploratory study identifying, evaluating and quantifying the top viewed short video content related to vaginismus on TikTok and YouTube Reels. Instagram has the term “vaginismus” blocked and thus was excluded. Methods To emulate patient experience, a new TikTok account was created. Using the search function for #vaginismus, the most-liked 50 videos were collected. Similarly, the top 50 most liked YouTube Shorts were identified. Two independent reviewers evaluated video quality with the DISCERN tool and readability with PEMAT score. The DISCERN tool evaluates health information and the PEMAT score measures how well the viewer comprehends the information posted on the internet. The higher the scores for each tool indicates higher quality in the material with I The scores were averaged. Exclusion criteria included non-English language, duplicates, and private accounts. Results In total, 100 total videos were analyzed of the top viewed from each platform, 50 from TikTok and 50 from YouTube Shorts. Fifty four percent of the top TikTok videos were patient experience, followed by 24% of resources/education with 20% of treatment/dilator. This contrasted with YouTube Reels for which 50% were resources and education based, 20% were specifically about treatment and education, 14% were patient experience, 6% were about symptoms.. The majority of TikTok videos (66%) were created by patients compared to YouTube with 40%, being posted by health care providers. The mean “likes” of the TikTok videos were 62755.282 likes with mean views of 998274.594. This was significantly less with YouTube Shorts with an average like count of 260.36 with an average view count of 9927.68. The average TikTok DISCERN score was 21.44 (SD = with standard deviation of 4.344) and. Tthe average DISCERN score of Youtube Shorts was 19.62 with (SD of = 2.12). Both of these scores would fall within the “very poor” category of the DISCERN tool. However the PEMAT score of YouTube Shorts was higher (92.19, SD = 11) than that of TikTok (82.25, SD = 13.1). Conclusions Significant variation exists in content type and educational quality of vaginismus-related videos across different platforms. Although TikTok had higher engagement, YouTube Shorts demonstrated greater understandability. Both platforms showed poor overall information quality and limited actionability. Given increasing use of social media as a health information source, these findings indicate the need for clinician involvement in social media content creation. Developing platform-specific educational strategies could ensure that patients are accessing accurate, actionable, and evidence-based information online. Disclosure No.