Changing Health Information on COVID-19 Vaccination in Asia

Abstract

The informational domain related to COVID-19 reflects the degree of uncertainty and pace of evolution of the pandemic. This places a burden on peoples’ searches for information to guide their choices, importantly including for COVID-19 vaccines. Thus, it is important for health communications that support vaccination campaigns to attenuate vaccine hesitancy to be accessible, including in terms of readability, and adapted to the evolving pandemic. This paper aims to understand internet searches on COVID-19 vaccination, specifically the mix of sources and readability of the sources over a two-year period (2021–2023) in Singapore, Hong Kong, and the Philippines, for search results in English, as English is a main language for each of these locations. The sources accessed through online searches in June 2021 and May 2023 were categorized by type of source and whether they were from one of the focal locations or elsewhere. The readability of information from web-search results was assessed using a set of readability tests (Flesch–Kincaid Reading Ease, Flesch–Kincaid Grade Level, Gunning Fog Index, Coleman–Liau Index, and Simple Measure of Gobbledygook Grade level). Over the two-year period there was an increase in government sources and reduction in mass media sources with distinct local patterns. Local government sources increased in Singapore whereas foreign government and multi-lateral organization sources increased in Hong Kong, with the Philippines being an intermediate pattern. In contrast to the changing mix of sources, the readability tests indicate a low proportion of URLs scoring within recommended readability thresholds across locations and types of sources over the two years. Information on COVID-19 vaccine development and deployment is an important part of health communications that includes internet search. The paper contributes to understanding health communications during a pandemic, including mix of local and non-local sources and contingency on local social and health context.