SAN DIEGO —— Misinformation linking acetaminophen use during pregnancy to autism in children rose on TikTok after an announcement from the Food and Drug Administration, according to research presented during the American Academy of Pediatrics 2026 National Conference & Exhibition Oct. 2-6, 2026, at the San Diego Convention Center.
The FDA announced a label change for acetaminophen products such as Tylenol on September 22, 2025, prompting a wave of confusion and concern that brought users to the internet in search of accurate information. On TikTok, however, they were more likely to encounter misinformation from influencers without medical expertise.
The abstract, titled, “Acetaminophen Use During Pregnancy and Autism on TikTok: Disproportionate Exposure to Misinformation in a Content Analysis,” analyzed 53 TikTok videos posted immediately after the announcement between September 2025 and November 2025 , and found that about 53% contained evidence-consistent information , while about 28% contained outright misinformation.
“Despite being a smaller portion of the overall available subject content, the misinformation videos accounted for over half of the total views of all the content we examined,” Shivani Srivastava, Medical Student at Rutgers School of Medicine said.
“Our results indicate that TikTok’s algorithm amplified low-quality, conspiracy-framed videos containing misinformation on a very sensitive health topic and allowed for misinformation videos to spread far wider than evidence-based videos that explained the lack of causal evidence between prenatal acetaminophen exposure and autism.”
A single misinformation video reached 10.3 million views , representing a third (36.6%) of all exposure across content analyzed. Additionally, nearly 3/4 of the videos containing misinformation were created by influencers as opposed to medical professionals.
Researchers state that as more people turn to social media, and especially TikTok, for medical advice, it becomes increasingly important for pediatricians to proactively address misinformation with patients and their families.
“After seeing pregnant patients in our own clinics question whether it was safe to take Tylenol during pregnancy, we wanted to understand what information they were being exposed to online,” Srivastava said. “Our findings reveal how important it is for medical institutions to be part of the conversations on social media by sharing accurate, engaging content that reaches patients where they are.”
Media Relations Contact: Lavene Gass, lag311@njms.rutgers.edu
Study author Katherine Poole is scheduled to present the research, which is below, from 10:20 to 10:30 a.m. PDT on Sunday, Oct. 4 at the Marriott.
In addition, Ms. Poole will be among highlighted abstract authors who will give brief presentations and be available for interviews during a “Soundbite Session” from noon- 1 pm PDT Sunday, Oct. 4, in the conference center Press Room, 14A.
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The American Academy of Pediatrics is an organization of 67,000 primary care pediatricians, pediatric medical subspecialists and pediatric surgical specialists dedicated to the health, safety and well-being of infants, children, adolescents and young adults. For more information, visit www.aap.org . Reporters can access the meeting program and other relevant meeting information through the AAP meeting website at http://www.aapexperience.org/
Program Name: Call for Abstracts
Submission Type: Council on Adolescents and Young Adults
Abstract Title: Acetaminophen Use During Pregnancy and Autism on TikTok: Disproportionate Exposure to Misinformation in a Content Analysis
Katherine Poole
Hoboken, NJ, United States
(781) 400-4541
10/04/2026 10:20 AM - 12:00 AM
TikTok is a primary source of health information for adolescents and young adults, a population at particular risk when algorithmic amplification accelerates the spread of medical misinformation. In September 2025, public attention to a proposed association between prenatal acetaminophen exposure and autism spectrum disorder (ASD), despite the absence of causal evidence, triggered a rapid surge of TikTok content on the topic. Misinformation in this environment poses direct risk to prenatal health decision-making among young people of reproductive age.
We conducted a cross-sectional content analysis of 53 TikTok videos posted between September and November 2025, identified using the search terms "tylenol autism," "acetaminophen autism," "paracetamol autism," and #tylenol (IRB approval: Pro2026000574). Two reviewers independently coded videos for misinformation status, creator type, educational quality using the validated Global Quality Scale (GQS), thematic framing, and engagement metrics. Inter-rater reliability for misinformation classification was substantial (Cohen's kappa = 0.86). Group differences were assessed using Fisher's exact test and Kruskal-Wallis tests. Independent predictors of misinformation were assessed using Firth penalized logistic regression. All analyses were performed in R version 4.5.3.
Of 53 videos, 52.8% were evidence-consistent, 28.3% contained misinformation, and 18.9% were mixed or uncertain. Health professionals produced exclusively evidence-consistent content, while influencers accounted for 73.3% of all misinformation videos (p < 0.001). Misinformation videos were of significantly lower educational quality than evidence-consistent videos (mean GQS 1.73 vs. 4.18, p < 0.001) and were more likely to include conspiracy framing (46.7%) and pharmaceutical distrust (53.3%, p < 0.001). Despite comprising only 28.3% of videos, misinformation accounted for 52.4% of total views across 28.13 million total views. A single misinformation video reached 10.3 million views, representing 36.6% of all exposure across analyzed videos. In logistic regression, lower educational quality and conspiracy framing were each independently associated with misinformation (p < 0.001 and p = 0.012, respectively), while creator type was not independently significant after adjustment.
TikTok's recommendation algorithm disproportionately amplified low-quality, conspiracy-framed content during this health controversy, giving misinformation far greater reach than evidence-based videos. Pediatricians should proactively address this content in clinical conversations with patients of reproductive age. Broader solutions will require platform-level content moderation and coordinated public health responses to counter misinformation on platforms widely used by adolescents and young adults.
Figure 1. Educational quality and exposure of TikTok videos discussing acetaminophen use during pregnancy and autism spectrum disorder risk (N = 53).
Each bubble represents one video. The x-axis shows Global Quality Scale (GQS) score and the y-axis shows total view count (log scale). Bubble size reflects share count, while shape indicates creator type and color indicates content classification. The y-axis is log-scaled to account for the wide range of view counts.
Figure 2. Predictors of misinformation in TikTok videos discussing acetaminophen use during pregnancy and autism spectrum disorder risk (N = 53), estimated using Firth penalized logistic regression.
Diamonds represent odds ratios and horizontal lines represent 95% confidence intervals. Red indicates statistical significance (p < 0.05) and blue indicates non-significance (p ≥ 0.05). The dashed vertical line marks the null (OR = 1).
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Acetaminophen Use During Pregnancy and Autism on TikTok: Disproportionate Exposure to Misinformation in a Content Analysis
2-Oct-2026