Abstract: Objective: To analyze the presentation characteristics and quality of nursing health-education content in comprehensive health science popularization short videos on several platforms, so as to provide evidence for the standardized development and management of nursing science popularization. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted. A search of Douyin and Xiaohongshu was performed from March 1 to 10, 2026. Using quota sampling stratified by platform and clinical specialty, 480 health science popularization short videos were included. The videos were coded for categories of nursing health education content and evaluated in terms of content completeness, actionability, risk communication, continuity-of-care orientation, and expression of physician-nurse collaboration. Results: At least one category of nursing health education content was identified in 52.1% of the videos. The content focused mainly on functional training and care guidance during rehabilitation, daily monitoring and self-care for chronic conditions, etc. The overall proportion of videos containing nursing health education content differed significantly across clinical specialties (P<0.05). Quality evaluation indicated relatively good content completeness and actionability, whereas risk communication, continuity-of-care orientation, and expression of physician-nurse collaboration remained insufficient. Conclusion: Health science popularization short videos have become an important medium for disseminating nursing-related health education. However, there remains room for improvement in systematic content provision, risk management, continuity of care, and interprofessional collaboration. Nursing health popularization content systems, collaborative production mechanisms, and quality evaluation processes should be further strengthened to facilitate the translation of nursing knowledge into safe and sustained health practices.

Key words: health science popularization; short video; nursing health education; nursing management