Bridging Language Barriers in COVID-19 Research: Descriptive Study of AccesoCovid.com’s Reach and User Engagement (Preprint)

• DOI: 10.2196/preprints.53978
• Publication Date: 2023-10-29T08:34:40Z
• Authors: Lucía Abascal Miguel; Maeve Forster; Sarah Gallalee; Mariam Carson; Jane K Fieldhouse; Alexandra Keir; Sigal Maya; Sabahat Rahman; Michael J A Reid; Hariclea Vasilopo...; Dania Nimbe Lima ...
• Keywords: Preprint; Scientific Communication; Language barrier

<sec> <title>BACKGROUND</title> The COVID-19 pandemic underscored the challenge of swiftly disseminating research findings to a global audience. Language barriers further exacerbated disparities in access timely scientific information, particularly for non-English speaking communities. majority was published English, limiting accessibility Spanish-speaking populations. </sec> <title>OBJECTIVE</title> This paper aims assess reach and effectiveness AccesoCovid.com, platform designed disseminate up-to-date both English Spanish, addressing language gap communication. <title>METHODS</title> AccesoCovid.com developed through partnership between University California, San Francisco (UCSF) Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM). website’s performance user engagement were evaluated using Google Analytics over span 2 years. Key metrics included preference, geographical distribution, site traffic. website summarized translated 1032 articles on various topics, such as “Pharmaceutical Interventions Vaccines.” <title>RESULTS</title> From February 2021 2023, attracted 57,000 users. Of 43,000 unique new visitors, 84.2% (n=36,219) hailed from regions. accessed organically search engines, with 88.4% (n=38,000) users arriving this way, while 5000 (11.6%) directly. Most (n=30,894, 72.1%) preferred Spanish version site. most category Vaccines,” followed by “Clinical Presentation Management” “Mental Health.” Regarding 72.1% (n=30,894) primarily used Spanish; 21.4% (n=9215) English; 6.7% (n=2891) spoke other languages, including Portuguese, Chinese, German. Geographically, visitors 179 countries, highest visitor counts Mexico (n=12,342, 28.7%), Spain (n=6405, 14.9%), United States (n=4416, 10.3%), Peru (n=3821, 8.9%). <title>CONCLUSIONS</title> successfully bridged critical dissemination research. Its success underscores pressing need multilingual resources. demonstrated significant reach, countries. highlights potential similar platforms ensure equitable knowledge across diverse linguistic Future efforts should focus expanding languages conducting formal evaluations enhance satisfaction impact.