Public health information about COVID-19 on Victorian government websites during the first year of the pandemic was often too difficult to understand, according to a study by La Trobe University.
Key points:
- A level of education of 10 years or higher would have been required to understand much of the material, according to the study
- About half of the Australian population reads at an educational level of 10 or less
- The state government defended its public health messages, saying they had been critical of achieving high levels of vaccination coverage.
The study found that material reported on two major government websites, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Education and Training, rarely met federal accessibility guidelines.
Through readability tests, the researchers found that a level of education of 10 years or higher would have been required to understand much of the content.
According to the federal government, approximately 44% of Australian adults have a reading level equivalent to 10 years or less.
The Accessibility Guidelines state that government communications should be appropriate for someone in year 7, to address differences in English proficiency, educational attainment, disability status, and access needs.
La Trobe University principal investigator Tanya Sherry said a “significant portion of the population” would have had trouble understanding the material, which sometimes required a higher level of education.
“This was critical content about when and where to wear masks, vaccines, when children can and can’t go to school, information that is being shared publicly and to which the whole community really needed access,” he said. Dr. Sherry.
“If people don’t have access to what the government’s recommendations and health recommendations are, they’re more likely to have these misconceptions and conspiracy-type misconceptions and theories, there’s a risk that they’ll be believed more.”
The study analyzed the content of 367 different web pages from the two government websites.
Wilfred Wang, a professor of media and communications at the University of Melbourne, said he was not surprised by the study’s findings.
“During the pandemic, many of us struggled to make sense of the information up there [on the websites]”Dr. Wang said.
“It’s not the most attractive and easy-to-navigate website for anyone, much less for people of different language backgrounds or with low literacy levels.”
He described the COVID-19 section of the Department of Health’s website as “very extensive” and said it was often difficult to find key health advice.
Dr. Wang conducted separate research on the experiences of older migrants with digital health communication during the pandemic in Australia.
Her research found that older migrants depended more on their communities than on official channels of information.
The government advocates for public health messages through trains, online and social media
A state government spokesman said Victoria’s public health communication during the pandemic had not been limited to website information.
“During the pandemic we communicated to Victorians in every way possible, whether through the media, social media, traditional advertising, online advertising and even messages at train stations,” they said. .
“Victoria continues to invest in culturally specific messages and language to reach diverse and hard – to – reach populations.
“This includes language advertising that promotes third doses that are currently running on various channels and platforms, partnerships with key services, organizing dozens of information and training sessions with community leaders, providing information on COVID-19 in more than 50 languages and support more than 100 languages. organizations with a grant program to address community concerns and drive vaccination adoption. “
The spokesman said Victoria had one of the highest vaccine removals in the world because of these measures.
Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to search, up and down arrows for volume. Clock time: 4 minutes 24 seconds 4 m 24 s At the age of 105, May Harrison survived COVID, but experts warn Australians to be careful.
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Posted 13 hours ago 13 hours ago Wednesday, June 8, 2022 at 4:43 AM, updated 12 hours ago Wednesday, June 8, 2022 at 5:23 AM