European Psychiatry (Apr 2021)

Tiktok, a vehicle for Pro-Ana and Pro-Mia content boosted by the COVID-19 pandemic

  • G. Lladó Jordan,
  • M.D.C. Díaz García,
  • P. Sánchez Esteban,
  • A. Santos Martín,
  • P. Mediavilla Sánchez,
  • M. Jiménez Cubo,
  • M. Miguel Cano,
  • J.A. Gómez Del Barrio,
  • R. Ayesa-Arriola

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1192/j.eurpsy.2021.1862
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 64
pp. S703 – S703

Abstract

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Introduction INTRODUCTION TikTok is a social network (SN) that allows users to share short videos about different issues. Since the COVID-19 lockdown, there has been an increase in Pro-Ana and Pro-Mia videos in this specific SN. Objectives OBJECTIVES To know the main characteristics about Pro-Ana and Pro-Mia contents among TikTok users. Methods METHODS A search was carried out using uncontrolled language with the term “TCA” (ED in English). The study included only Pro-Ana and Pro-Mia resources in Spanish. Resources under the category “recovery” were excluded. A random sample of 16 TikTok was used, since it is enough to estimate, with a confidence of 95% and an accuracy of +/- 20 percentage units, a population percentage that is expected to be around 20%. The studied variables were images, type of resources, “challenges” and misspelled words. Results RESULTS In the sample, 68.75% of the profiles were created upon confinement, 56.25% had more than 500 followers and 68.75% had more than 3000 “likes”. 43.75% included more than 30% of ED advocacy content, 18.75% promoted challenges and 37.5% used misspelled words to avoid SN censorship. Conclusions CONCLUSIONS There has been a remarkable increase in ED-related content as a result of lockdown. In turn, the increasing number of users who are part of TikTok reveals that this is a SN that can be associated with ED advocacy. Disclosure No significant relationships.

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