Evaluating the psychosocial effects of the Northern Territory Institute of Sport (NTIS) High Performance Officiating Program (HPOP).

Infectious disease–specific health literacy (IDSHL)—defined as the cognitive, behavioral, and skills-based capacity to obtain, process, and understand basic infectious disease information needed to make appropriate health decisions—is a critical social determinant of health outcomes [,]. It empowers individuals to engage in preventive behaviors, adhere to treatment regimens, and navigate health systems effectively [,]. The COVID-19 pandemic, caused by SARS-CoV-2, placed unprecedented emphasis on public understanding of transmission dynamics, nonpharmaceutical interventions (NPIs), and vaccination [-]. For nearly three years, governments worldwide, including China, implemented rigorous containment strategies and launched intensive public health communication campaigns [,]. The pandemic evolution in China was broadly characterized by experts into several distinct phases: the prepandemic era (2019), the acute pandemic phase (2020‐2022, characterized by stringent NPIs and intensive public health messaging), and the initial postpandemic period (2023‐2024, following the transition to endemic management in January 2023) [-]. This phased approach provides a structured framework to examine the differential impacts of varying intensities of public health interventions on IDSHL over time. This period offered a unique opportunity to examine population-level changes in IDSHL in response to a major, sustained public health crisis. By capitalizing on this unique context, we aimed to assess whether a shift in IDSHL was observed during and after the pandemic. It is particularly noteworthy that during the COVID-19 pandemic, digital platforms, and social media (eg, WeChat, Weibo, and news applications) became the central channels through which the public accessed authoritative pandemic updates, health guidance, and subsequently formed health-related behaviors [,]. This shift created a highly digitalized health information environment. Consequently, the observed changes in public IDSHL captured by our consecutive surveys coincide with the period of intense digital information exposure, during which public cognition and behavior were shaped by large-scale digital health messaging. It is crucial to emphasize that this study uses an observational, repeated cross-sectional design without a control group. Therefore, while we document strong temporal associations between the pandemic phases and changes in IDSHL, we cannot infer causality. All interpretations of “association,” “temporal relationship,” or “observed change” refer to statistical associations at the population level.