Assessing the Readability of Covid-19 Testing Messages on the Internet
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21427025 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Philip Garcia (0000-0002-1170-0585, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, corresponding author), Joseph Fera (0000-0002-9394-8735, Lehman College), Jan Mohlman (0000-0002-2976-6224, William Paterson University), Corey H Basch (0000-0003-4862-4229, William Paterson University) |
| Year | 2021 |
| Volume | 46 |
| Issue | 5 |
| Pages | 913-917 |
| Publication date | 2021-10-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Community Health (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0094-5145 • E-ISSN: 1573-3610 |
| Publisher | Springer Science and Business Media LLC (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1007/s10900-021-00973-6 |
| PMID | 33638806 |
| OpenAlex | W3132222050 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 11 |
The COVID-19 pandemic first became evident at the end of 2019, and because of the many unknown aspects of this emerging infectious disease, the internet quickly became a source of information for consumers. It is important for any vital information to be written unambiguously, and at a level that can be understood by all people regardless of education levels. The purpose of this study was to assess the readability of 50 sources of COVID19 testing information online. Only 6 websites out of 50 received an appropriate readability score on more than one assessment. One-sample, one-tailed t-tests (α = 0.05, df = 49) were used to see if the websites with information on COVID-19 testing are being written at appropriate reading levels. The resulting p -values indicate that each p -value recorded is substantially below 0.05, it is very unlikely that websites on this topic are being written at the recommended levels. Even the optimal messages on COVID-19 reflect a confusing and rapidly changing public health crisis, however if messages are kept simple and clear, individuals will have the best possible chance of optimizing behavioral mitigation strategies. These are compelling reasons for informational hosts to take necessary steps to ensure that messages are written in as simple terms as possible. To this end, it is suggested that internet sites dispersing COVID-19 testing information build in text analysis methods for all published messages, particularly those meant to inform best health practices in the time of a pandemic
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) · Disease · Infectious disease (medical specialty) · Internet privacy · Pandemic · Political science · Public health · Public relations · Readability · Reading (process) · Sample (material) · Test (biology) · The Internet · World Wide Web · Computer Science · Medicine · Misinformation and Its Impacts · Nursing · Psychology · Respiratory viral infections research · SARS-CoV-2 detection and testing
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0.5 |
| Citation span | 2024 - 2024 (1) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |