TY - JOUR
T1 - Readability and beyond - Health literacy and numeracy and COVID-19 communications in early childhood education
T2 - Are we communicating effectively?
AU - Dahm, Maria R.
AU - Bull, Rebecca
AU - Sadow, Lauren
AU - Tran, Dung
AU - Zurynski, Yvonne
AU - Amin, Janaki
AU - Hadley, Fay
AU - Harrison, Linda J.
AU - Waniganayake, Manjula
AU - Wong, Sandie
AU - Degotardi, Sheila
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Authors
PY - 2023/9
Y1 - 2023/9
N2 - Objective: Analyse the linguistic and numerical complexity of COVID-19-related health information communicated from Australian national and state governments and health agencies to national and local early childhood education (ECE) settings. Methods: Publicly available health information (n = 630) was collected from Australian national and state governments and health agencies, and ECE agencies and service providers. A purposive sample of documents (n = 33) from 2020 to 2021 was analysed inductively and deductively combining readability, health numeracy and linguistic analyses and focusing on the most frequent actionable health advice topics. Results: COVID-19 health advice most frequently related to hygiene, distancing and exclusion. Readability scores in 79% (n = 23) of documents were above the recommended grade 6 reading level for the public. Advice was delivered using direct linguistic strategies (n = 288), indirect strategies (n = 73), and frequent mitigating hedges (n = 142). Most numerical concepts were relatively simple, but lacked elaborative features (e.g., analogies) and/or required subjective interpretation. Conclusion: COVID-19 health advice available to the ECE sector included linguistic and numerical information open to mis/interpretation making it difficult to understand and implement. Practice Implications: Combining readability scores with measures of linguistic and numerical complexity offers a more holistic approach to assessing accessibility of health advice and improving health literacy among its recipients.
AB - Objective: Analyse the linguistic and numerical complexity of COVID-19-related health information communicated from Australian national and state governments and health agencies to national and local early childhood education (ECE) settings. Methods: Publicly available health information (n = 630) was collected from Australian national and state governments and health agencies, and ECE agencies and service providers. A purposive sample of documents (n = 33) from 2020 to 2021 was analysed inductively and deductively combining readability, health numeracy and linguistic analyses and focusing on the most frequent actionable health advice topics. Results: COVID-19 health advice most frequently related to hygiene, distancing and exclusion. Readability scores in 79% (n = 23) of documents were above the recommended grade 6 reading level for the public. Advice was delivered using direct linguistic strategies (n = 288), indirect strategies (n = 73), and frequent mitigating hedges (n = 142). Most numerical concepts were relatively simple, but lacked elaborative features (e.g., analogies) and/or required subjective interpretation. Conclusion: COVID-19 health advice available to the ECE sector included linguistic and numerical information open to mis/interpretation making it difficult to understand and implement. Practice Implications: Combining readability scores with measures of linguistic and numerical complexity offers a more holistic approach to assessing accessibility of health advice and improving health literacy among its recipients.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85163386091&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.pec.2023.107823
DO - 10.1016/j.pec.2023.107823
M3 - Article
SN - 0738-3991
VL - 114
JO - Patient Education and Counseling
JF - Patient Education and Counseling
M1 - 107823
ER -