Readability of COVID-19 health science information on the official websites of 27 Provincial Health Commissions in China

Background The study aimed to evaluate the readability of COVID-19 health science information released by the Provincial Health Commissions of China and analyze the problems existing in the current health information webpage, so as to provide an improvement direction for the development of highly readable health information related to public health events. Methods The main research data were obtained from health articles on COVID-19 published on the websites of 27 Provincial Health Commissions of China. Two researchers independently evaluated the readability of webpages using an Online Health Information Readability Evaluation Tool across seven dimensions. Besides, we also applied linguistic analysis techniques to assess readability from text factors. Results Readability scores ranged from 0.49 to 0.98 for 92 included articles, with an average of 0.78 ± 0.10. Among the evaluation dimensions, organizational layout obtained the highest score, whereas visual assistance received the lowest score. No statistically significant differences were observed in readability level across different regions or information topics ( p > 0.05). For text factors of readability, the mean value of difficulty coefficient (scored on a 1–200 scale, where a value greater than 30 indicated relatively high reading difficulty) was 63.56 ± 10.79, suggesting the articles were challenging to read. The correlation coefficient between the webpage readability score and the text difficulty coefficient was −0.535 ( p < 0.001). Conclusions The overall readability of the COVID-19 health information published by China's Provincial Health Commissions is acceptable, but the improvement measures for public understanding are needed. Health information producers should better align with the general public's literacy level through using shorter sentences, providing specific behavioral guidance with clear visual assistance, and utilize question-and-answer formats, which will be helpful to enhance the dissemination of the COVID-19 health information in China.