Readability of Online COVID-19 Health Information: A Comparison between Four English Speaking Countries

The general public is faced with a plethora of misinformation regarding COVID-19 and the readability of online information has an impact on their understanding of the disease.

The accessibility of online healthcare information relating to COVID-19 is unknown. T she authors ought to evaluate the readability of online information relating to COVID-19 in four English speaking regions: Ireland, the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States, and compare readability of website source provenance and regional origin.

There were poor levels of readability webpages reviewed, with only 17.2% of webpages at a universally readable level. There was a significant difference in readability between the different webpages based on their information source (p < 0.01). Public Health organisations and Government organisations provided the most readable COVID-19 material, while digital media sources were significantly less readable. There were no significant differences in readability between regions.

Last modified: November 16, 2020

Language: English