BACKGROUND:

Multimedia videos are important tools to inform uptake of the COVID-19 vaccine. Video design using health literacy guidelines may help optimize video usefulness. Many health organizations (HO) (provides information) and health care (HCO) (provides direct health care) organizations have used YouTube to deliver videos about COVID-19 vaccines.

OBJECTIVE:

We examined HO and HCO COVID-19 vaccine videos shown on YouTube for health literacy guidelines (quality, understandability and actionability).

METHODS:

The top 30 most viewed COVID-19 vaccine videos posted by HO and HCO were analyzed using the Global Quality Score (GQS) and the Patient Education Assessment Tool for evaluating audiovisual formats (PEMAT-AV).

KEY RESULTS:

GQS scores averaged 3.12 (standard deviation [SD] .789), which is equivalent to 80%. Using PEMATAV, there was a relationship between actionability and quality (r(28) = .453, p < .05) for HO; for HCO, there was a relationship between usability and quality (r(28) = .455, p < .05). Odds ratio analysis showed quality in HO leading to higher odds of actionability (3.573, 95% confidence interval [CI] [1.480–14.569]) and quality in HCO videos leading to higher understandability (4.093, CI [1.203–17.865]).

CONCLUSION:

Few organizations applied all health literacy principles to video design. Video creation for mass media health campaigns by HO and HCO should include consideration of evidence-based health literacy measures (quality, understandability, actionability) to ensure intended results across viewers with different health literacy levels including communities who have been disproportionately affected by COVID-19.