Readability of hearing-related internet information in traditional Chinese language

ABSTRACT

Aim: To assess the readability of online hearing-related information in Traditional Chinese.

Methods: Adult Mandarin speakers (N = 39) identified keywords in Traditional Chinese that were entered into google.com.tw (Google Taiwan) and google.com.hk (Google Hong Kong). Jing [1995. 中文國文教材的適讀性研究: 適讀年級的推估. 教育研究資訊, 3(3), 113–127] and CRIE 1.0 readability formulas were used to assess readability.

Results: A total of 31 websites were assessed. The CRIE 1.0 and Jing formulas revealed different results. Using the Chinese Readability Index Explorer (CRIE) 1.0 formula, 25% of the websites had a reading grade level greater than 6. Using the Jing formula, 81% of the websites had a reading grade level greater than 6. When websites were analyzed according to organization type, there was no significant difference in reading grade level between the different type of organizations (commercial, non-profit, government).

Conclusions: Readability of online hearing-related information in Traditional Chinese is higher than recommended levels when using the Jing formula, but not with the CRIE formula. An area of future research is to determine which formula is best suited for online health information.

KEYWORDS:

• Health literacy
• health information
• online
• hearing
• Chinese

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.