Communications in the time of a pandemic: the readability of documents for public consumption

Abstract

Objective : Government communications in a crisis can influence public health outcomes. This research aimed to investigate if written communications of the most commonly sought sources of COVID‐19 information available on the internet have readability levels commensurate with those of the general public. Methods : Online documents from the World Health Organization (WHO), and the governments of Australia, the UK and the US were assessed for readability using an online instrument that calculated scores for the Flesch Reading Ease Score, the SMOG Index and the Readability Consensus Grade Level. Results : Similar to the previous research, most documents assessed had a readability standard that was at or above the recommended grade level, and as such inaccessible to substantial portions of the general public. A one‐way ANOVA with post hoc tests revealed significant differences among the data, with Australian documents significantly more difficult to read than those from the UK and US. Conclusions : Government departments need to consider their audience and monitor readability of the documents they produce to ensure that readers can understand them. Implications for public health : Health communications need to be written at a level appropriate for the targeted population in order to be fit for purpose.

How have governments supported citizens stranded abroad due to COVID-19 travel restrictions? A comparative analysis of the financial and health support in eleven countries

“…This implies that information may not always be reaching or being understood by the population intended, like the literature looking into the readability of documents and health information for public consumption (22,26,44). Moreover, as the information assessed in this paper was accessed through a computer, certain issues regarding digital inequalities are raised (45).…”

“…First, our data collection focused on information available on government websites only, and it is possible that information was missed if it was distributed through alternative channels including social media or through traveller registration apps (48)(49)(50). Second, the SMOG and Flesch Kincaid reading ease tools used in this study were not speci cally designed to assess online information as has been discussed previously, however they are the most frequently used tools in assessments of online information readability due to a lack of validated alternatives (11,22,26,48). Third, as the data was collected over a short period, between June 18 to June 30, 2021, it is possible that the services and information available may have changed due to the evolving nature of pandemic information and the pages sourced may no longer be accessible.…”

“…For this study, readability was de ned as being the measure of reading di culty of a given text, usability heuristics were de ned as a measure of the general principles used to analyse webpage design to ensure usability, and accessibility of pages was assessed as a requirement for websites to be usable for those with disabilities and for those using other devices other than computers, including phones and tablets (11,(22)(23)(24)(25). Three validated tools, all previously utilised in assessing COVID-19 communications, were adopted for this present study (11,26).…”

“…The Flesch Kincaid readability score however, represents the level of reading ease, with scores of 0 to 30 showing information that is 'very di cult to read', 30 to 50 being 'di cult to read', 50 to 60 as 'fairly di cult to read', 60 to 70 as 'standard/average', 70 to 80 as 'fairly easy to read', 80 to 90 as 'easy to read' and nally, 90 to 100 as 'very easy to read' (24,27). Scores of both reading age given by the SMOG and reading level from Flesch Kincaid readability test were averaged by country to give an overall readability score and categorisation of reading ease, with research suggesting that year 8 in Australia and grade 6 in the USA maintains the most appropriate reading age for information comprehension across the general population (24,26,27).…”

The academic labour of knowledge mobilization: What scholarly publishers need to know

“…For example, blog posts can be written using Plain Language rather than complex, jargon-dense academic language styles to ensure that interested parties can access findings without requiring high literacy, and in recent times, growing attention has been given to readability where complex information is being communicated for public good (e.g. Ferguson et al, 2021). These and other media disseminated outputs may still be read by other academics given that use of social media by researchers is strong in some countries (Jamali et al, 2020), but they can also reach a more diverse audience of potential interested parties and prospective end-users.…”