Popularity Does Not Equate to Quality: A Cross-Sectional Analysis of Post-stroke depression Short Videos on Chinese Social Media

Bilibili videos were longer in duration, whereas Douyin and Kuaishou exhibited higher user engagement. All platforms were dominated by videos focusing on disease symptoms, uploaded primarily by individual professionals, among whom neurologists accounted for the largest proportion. Video quality and reliability differed across platforms: Bilibili scored significantly higher in quality than Kuaishou (P<0.01), and Douyin scored significantly higher in reliability than Kuaishou (P<0.01).

Videos concerning disease symptoms and those uploaded by individual professionals achieved higher quality and reliability scores, while commercial or miscellaneous videos and content from non-professional institutions scored lower. Various user engagement metrics were positively correlated with each other, and video duration was negatively associated with the number of collections. However, neither video duration nor engagement indicators showed significant associations with quality or reliability (P>0.05).

Conclusion Professional background and content type are key determinants of video quality, whereas current platform algorithms fail to prioritize high-quality content based on popularity.