Health Information on COVID-19 Vaccination for Sustainable Society: Readability of Online Sources and Newspapers in Singapore, Hong Kong, and the Philippines

Abstract

Objective: To address the COVID-19 pandemic, as for other infectious diseases, a key intervention is vaccination. To inform on the benefits and risks of vaccines, health communications are of great importance to enable empowered decisions and contribute to developing sustainable society-wide responses to health priorities such as the pandemic. To achieve the necessary citizen inclusion and involvement, the readability of media content fundamental. Previous research related to COVID-19 information has found readability of online information considerably more difficult than recommended. However, studies on the readability of information related to COVID-19 vaccination in Asia have not been carried out yet. Furthermore, especially in this pandemic, sources of health information include a variety of information channels, including through the internet and mass media. Thus, this paper aims to understand the ease of reading information generated through web-searches and newspaper articles on COVID-19 vaccination in Asia where English is one of the main languages, namely Singapore, Hong Kong, and the Philippines. Methods: The readability of information on COVID-19 vaccination from web-search results and newspaper articles for each location was assessed using a set of readability tests (Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease, Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level, Gunning Fog Index, Coleman-Liau Index, and Simple Measure of Gobbledygook Grade level). Results: Overall, the readability tests indicated a low proportion of URLs scoring within recommended readability thresholds, consistent across locations and types of sources. Furthermore, a relatively low proportion of web searches directed to local sources, as most URLs linked to sources beyond Singapore, Hong Kong or the Philippines. Further, local online and newspaper sources on average did not score any better on readability than non-local sources. Conclusion: Understanding of heath communications for COVID-19 vaccination encompasses accessing information on vaccine development and deployment, which benefits from including experiences from other locations as well as information on local uptake. The results pointed to relatively difficult-to-read readability scores for top search results as well as for local newspapers, and with a fairly low proportion of local sources amongst top search results. Hence, for health communications strategies addressing COVID-19 vaccination, an important issue is to consider different types of media sources to achieve the right mix of local and non-local sources while also ensuring appropriate readability.