Olivia Mac|Danielle M Muscat|Julie Ayre|Pinika Patel|Kirsten McCaffery
The readability of official public health information on COVID?19
University of Sydney|University of Sydney|University of Sydney|University of Sydney|University of Sydney
information needs people lower health literacy culturally linguistically diverse backgrounds received limited attention coronavirus disease 2019 covid19 pandemic one study complexity governmentproduced covid19 information australia overseas exceeded recommended grade 8 reading level making difficult general audiences let alone people lower health literacy1 therefore compared complexity readability understandability actionability australian overseas covid19 vaccination information covid19related information physical distancing mask wearing including easy read resources developed australia new zealand march april 2021 selected public sources information vaccination physical distancing face masks government websites australia new zealand united kingdom three overseas public health agencies centers disease control prevention european centre disease prevention control world health organization also searched site resources labelled easy read readability assessed simple measure gobbledygook smog index2 estimates grade reading level range grade 518 grade 8 recommended general audiences3 also used widely employed patient education materials assessment tool pemat4 assess understandability elements include word choice use visual aids layout organisation actionability clarity recommended actions steps two researchers independently scored 24 pemat items 0 disagree 1 agree na applicable disagreements resolved discussion total score proportion agree responses score 70 deemed adequate4 report pemat scores standard content website topic linked pages designed used together assessed easy read items individually designed standalone resources details online supporting information statistical significance differences medians information topics vaccination physical distancing mask wearing assessed separately standard easy read content kruskalwallis tests p 005 deemed statistically significant analyses conducted excel microsoft spss 260 ibm standard content exceeded grade 8 reading level median grade reading level 12 range 916 median grade reading level significantly higher vaccination information 13 interquartile range iqr 1214 physical distancing 12 iqr 1113 p 0007 mask information 11 iqr 1012 p 0001 complexity twelve 21 easy read items exceeded grade 8 reading level range 710 median reading level easy read vaccination information grade 10 iqr 910 significantly higher information physical distancing grade 7 iqr 78 p 0030 masks grade 8 iqr 78 p 0036 box patient education assessment tool pemat median range median understandability score standard content 88 iqr 7993 range 25100 20 26 sources met recommended understandability threshold 70 median understandability scores similar vaccination 83 iqr 7586 physical distancing 93 iqr 7993 maskrelated information 93 iqr 8793 median actionability score standard content 80 iqr 60100 range 0100 13 26 sources meet recommended actionability threshold 70 21 easy read items met threshold understandability median 88 five met recommended actionability threshold interrater assessment agreements rated substantial cohen 070 twelve months pandemic considerable amount covid19 public health information australia overseas rates poorly measures readability actionability particularly information vaccination easy read content better readability understandability showed possible convey information covid19 plain language items number difficult locate websites study limited exclusion multimedia formats findings reflect information available april 2021 public health information easily accessible general public despite who5 national academy medicine6 endorsing plain language practice aligned guidelines high health literacy demands vaccination information australia important implications vaccination uptake7 8 successfully managing covid19 pandemic requires wholeofcommunity response based effective public communication commitment health literacy thank erin cvejic university sydney statistical advice relevant disclosures please note publisher responsible content functionality supporting information supplied authors queries missing content directed corresponding author article