The Literacy Demand of Cancer & COVID-19 Consumer Health Information

ABSTRACT

The Internet is widely used for accessing COVID-19 information and while abundant, it is frequently complex, inconsistent, and contradictory. This “misinfodemic” has repeatedly revealed low health literacy to be an underestimated public health problem. This study evaluated whether this holds true for information about COVID-19 and cancer on commonly visited websites. “Coronavirus and cancer” and “COVID-19 and cancer” were entered in Google Canada and the first 10 results were evaluated for readability, understandability, actionability, accuracy and consistency. Much of the cancer and COVID-19 information online does not meet health literacy best practices and is inaccessible to patients seeking this information. © 2021 The Author(s). Published with license by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.