Readability and beyond - Health literacy and numeracy and COVID-19 communications in Early Childhood Education: Are we communicating effectively?

Maria R. Dahm; Rebecca Bull; Lauren Sadow; Dũng Trần; Yvonne Zurynski; Janaki Amin; Fay Hadley; Linda J. Harrison; Manjula Waniganayake; Sandie Wong; Sheila Degotardi

doi:10.1016/j.pec.2023.107823

Readability and beyond - Health literacy and numeracy and COVID-19 communications in Early Childhood Education: Are we communicating effectively?

Maria R. Dahm^*, Rebecca Bull, Lauren Sadow, Dũng Trần, Yvonne Zurynski, Janaki Amin, Fay Hadley, Linda J. Harrison, Manjula Waniganayake, Sandie Wong, Sheila Degotardi

^*Corresponding author for this work

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Abstract

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 2020-2021 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.

Original language	English
Article number	107823
Pages (from-to)	1-9
Number of pages	9
Journal	Patient Education and Counseling
Volume	114
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pec.2023.107823
Publication status	Published - Sept 2023

Bibliographical note

Copyright the Author(s) 2023. Version archived for private and non-commercial use with the permission of the author/s and according to publisher conditions. For further rights please contact the publisher.

Keywords

health literacy
numeracy
health advice
readability
applied linguistics
COVID-19
early childhood education
public health communication

Access to Document

10.1016/j.pec.2023.107823Licence: CC BY

Publisher version (open access)Final published version, 479 KBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

Dahm, M. R., Bull, R., Sadow, L., Trần, D., Zurynski, Y., Amin, J., Hadley, F., Harrison, L. J., Waniganayake, M., Wong, S., & Degotardi, S. (2023). Readability and beyond - Health literacy and numeracy and COVID-19 communications in Early Childhood Education: Are we communicating effectively? Patient Education and Counseling, 114, 1-9. Article 107823. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pec.2023.107823

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title = "Readability and beyond - Health literacy and numeracy and COVID-19 communications in Early Childhood Education: Are we communicating effectively?",

abstract = "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 2020-2021 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.",

keywords = "health literacy, numeracy, health advice, readability, applied linguistics, COVID-19, early childhood education, public health communication",

author = "Dahm, {Maria R.} and Rebecca Bull and Lauren Sadow and Dũng Trần and Yvonne Zurynski and Janaki Amin and Fay Hadley and Harrison, {Linda J.} and Manjula Waniganayake and Sandie Wong and Sheila Degotardi",

note = "Copyright the Author(s) 2023. Version archived for private and non-commercial use with the permission of the author/s and according to publisher conditions. For further rights please contact the publisher.",

year = "2023",

month = sep,

doi = "10.1016/j.pec.2023.107823",

language = "English",

volume = "114",

pages = "1--9",

journal = "Patient Education and Counseling",

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Dahm, MR, Bull, R, Sadow, L, Trần, D , Zurynski, Y , Amin, J , Hadley, F , Harrison, LJ , Waniganayake, M , Wong, S & Degotardi, S 2023, 'Readability and beyond - Health literacy and numeracy and COVID-19 communications in Early Childhood Education: Are we communicating effectively?', Patient Education and Counseling, vol. 114, 107823, pp. 1-9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pec.2023.107823

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 - Trần, Dũng

AU - Zurynski, Yvonne

AU - Amin, Janaki

AU - Hadley, Fay

AU - Harrison, Linda J.

AU - Waniganayake, Manjula

AU - Wong, Sandie

AU - Degotardi, Sheila

N1 - Copyright the Author(s) 2023. Version archived for private and non-commercial use with the permission of the author/s and according to publisher conditions. For further rights please contact the publisher.

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 2020-2021 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 2020-2021 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.

KW - health literacy

KW - numeracy

KW - health advice

KW - readability

KW - applied linguistics

KW - COVID-19

KW - early childhood education

KW - public health communication

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U2 - 10.1016/j.pec.2023.107823

DO - 10.1016/j.pec.2023.107823

M3 - Article

C2 - 37270932

AN - SCOPUS:85163386091

SN - 0738-3991

VL - 114

SP - 1

EP - 9

JO - Patient Education and Counseling

JF - Patient Education and Counseling

M1 - 107823

ER -

Readability and beyond - Health literacy and numeracy and COVID-19 communications in Early Childhood Education: Are we communicating effectively?

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

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MRFF: Harnessing the health communication power of the early childhood sector

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Readability and beyond - Health literacy and numeracy and COVID-19 communications in Early Childhood Education: Are we communicating effectively?

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Projects

MRFF: Harnessing the health communication power of the early childhood sector

Cite this