Health literacy characteristics of over-the-counter rapid antigen COVID-19 test materials.
Res Social Adm Pharm
; 18(12): 4124-4128, 2022 12.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1983921
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
The United States Food & Drug Administration's emergency authorized use, in December 2020, of over-the-counter (OTC) rapid antigen COVID-19 tests was a pandemic control milestone.OBJECTIVE:
To assess health literacy-related characteristics of OTC rapid antigen COVID-19 test materials.METHODS:
Between September-December 2021, we identified eleven (n = 11) OTC rapid antigen COVID-19 tests available for purchase in the US. We assessed readability (Flesch Reading Ease and Fernández-Huerta), formatting and layout features of English- and Spanish-language step-by-step OTC rapid antigen COVID-19 test package insert instructions. Video-based step-by-step OTC rapid antigen COVID-19 test instructions were evaluated for understandability and actionability (Patient Education Materials Assessment Tool for Audiovisual Materials [PEMAT-A/V]), overall quality (Global Quality Scale [GQS]) and cultural diversity and inclusiveness. Descriptive analyses were performed using IBM® Statistical Package for the Social Sciences.RESULTS:
Nine (81.8%) OTC rapid antigen COVID-19 tests included English-language (≈8th-9th reading grade level) step-by-step instructions, while 4 included Spanish-language (≈10th-12th reading grade level) instructions. On average, instructions were printed on a tabloid sized piece of paper, with text size ranging from 4 to 12 point and including nearly 20 illustrations. English-language step-by-step OTC rapid antigen COVID-19 test video-based instructions (n = 6) ranged from 104 to 541 min with PEMAT-A/V scores ranging from 80% to 100%. As indicated by GQS scores, English-language videos were of high quality (5 videos scored 5/5; 1 video scored 4/5). One COVID-19 test product manufacturing website included Spanish-language video-based instructions (time = 459 min; PEMAT-A/V = 100%; GQS = 5).CONCLUSIONS:
OTC COVID-19 test step-by-step instructions-both package inserts and video-based-included features shown to foster patient understanding and facilitate proper use. Moving forward, greater attention needs to be placed on expanding both Spanish-language and video-based OTC COVID-19 test material availability to improve accessibility across diverse populations.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Health Literacy
/
COVID-19
Type of study:
Experimental Studies
/
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
Limits:
Humans
Country/Region as subject:
North America
Language:
English
Journal:
Res Social Adm Pharm
Journal subject:
Pharmacy
Year:
2022
Document Type:
Article
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