ABSTRACT
Microblogging sites such as Twitter play an important role in dealing with various mass emergencies including natural disasters and pandemics. The FIRE 2022 track on Information Retrieval from Microblogs during Disasters (IRMiDis) focused on two important tasks – (i) to detect the vaccine-related stance of tweets related to COVID-19 vaccines, and (ii) to detect reporting of COVID-19 symptom in tweets. © 2022 Copyright for this paper by its authors.
ABSTRACT
Purpose: This paper aims to understand how the Covid-19 pandemic has changed consumers' perceptions of outdoor consumption categories, such as retail shopping, eating out, public events and travel and how these perceptions may impact businesses in these domains in the long term. Further, this research aims to understand demographic effects on outdoor consumption inhibition during the current pandemic and discuss how businesses can use these insights to rebrand their offerings and evolve after the pandemic. Design/methodology/approach: Data collected by CivicScience, a survey-based consumer intelligence research platform, during April–July 2020 forms the basis of the preliminary analysis, where the chi-square test has been used to examine significant differences in consumer attitudes between different age groups, income groups and genders. Further, a social media analysis of conversations around outdoor consumption activities is undertaken to understand the rationale behind these demographics-based attitude differences. Findings: Results lend varying degrees of support to the hypothesized consumer attitudes toward outdoor consumption activities during the Covid-19 pandemic. As the pandemic wore on, older (vs younger), female (vs male) consumers and lower (vs higher) income-group consumers had reportedly higher inhibition toward different outdoor activities. Older individuals were significantly less likely to shop, dine and attend public events than younger individuals. Lower-income consumers were significantly less likely to dine and travel than higher-income consumer consumers. Female consumers were significantly less likely to shop and travel than male consumers. Social media scan of conversations suggests that differences in perceived health and financial risks may have resulted in demographics-based differences in outdoor consumption activities. Research limitations/implications: This study contributes to the literature by understanding demographic differences in consumer participation in outdoor activities. One limitation is that due to the time-sensitive nature of the pandemic research, further studies could not be conducted to understand the implications of other variables, beyond demographics that influence consumer behavior during a crisis. A future research direction is to understand how other psychological variables or traits, influence health and financial risk-taking behavior during a similar crisis. Originality/value: The principal contribution of the present research is that it tests the risk-taking theory in the context of outdoor consumption during the Covid-19 pandemic. The present research has implications for businesses as they continue to evolve during and post Covid-19. © 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited.
ABSTRACT
Microblogging sites such as Twitter play an important role in dealing with various mass emergencies including natural disasters and pandemics. Over the last several years, the track on Information Retrieval from Microblogs during Disasters (IRMiDis), organized as part of the FIRE conference series, has provided annotated datasets for developing ML/NLP techniques for utilizing microblogs for various practical tasks that would help authorities better deal with disaster situations. In particular, the FIRE 2022 IRMiDis track focused on two important tasks-(i) to detect the vaccine-related stance of tweets related to COVID-19 vaccines, and (ii) to detect reporting of COVID-19 symptom in tweets. © 2022 Owner/Author.
ABSTRACT
Introduction: Telemedicine acted as one of the biggest medium in treating Coronavirus Disease-2019 (COVID-19) patients during the second wave of the still ongoing pandemic. Although the symptoms were taken care of and treated through teleconsultation, the loneliness and social support system of these patients went largely unrecognised. The morbidity pattern, effect of self-isolation and quarantine, uncertainties in social support were major contributors to loneliness among patients suffering from COVID-19. Aim: To estimate the proportion of loneliness and level of social support experienced by COVID-19 patients seeking advice from a telemedicine centre of Kolkata and to find out their socio-clinical profile and the associated relationship. Materials and Methods: An observational study with cross-sectional design was conducted on 403 COVID-19 patients who had taken advice from the telemedicine centre of Institute of Post Graduate Medical Education and Research (IPGME and R), Kolkata for a period of 12 weeks (May-July 2021). Loneliness was assessed by the 11-item De Jong Gierveld Loneliness scale, whereas social support was assessed using 12-item Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support scale through telephonic interview. Data were tabulated in the Microsoft Office Excel 2019 (Microsoft Corp, Redmond, WA, USA) and the analysis was performed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (IBM, New York City, USA) version 25.0. Results: Out of 403, more than half of the study population, 194 (48.2%) belonged to 18-35 years of age. Of the total, 235 (58.3%) were males, 319 (79.2%) were currently married and 300 (74.4%) were Hindus. About 142 (35.2%) respondents had experienced severe loneliness, while 297 (73.7%) had experienced high social support. There was a significant negative correlation found between loneliness and social support (r=-0.495, p-value <0.01). It was found that being male, belonging to nuclear family, education upto higher secondary level, being addicted, loneliness due to physical distancing, and those who had socialised frequently had higher odds of loneliness, whereas unemployed, unskilled, semiskilled and skilled occupation, having one chronic disease had lower odds of social support. Conclusion: About 338 (84%) patients had experienced loneliness which was strikingly high. This shows a deeper aspect into the actual picture of how COVID-19 impacts mental health of those who are affected. Future interventions are needed to address loneliness and develop social support system along with addressing healthcare needs of COVID-19 patients.
ABSTRACT
Background and Objectives: Undergraduate medical students are more prone to develop stress, anxiety, and depression;and COVID-19 is an additional source of pressure for them. The present study was conducted with the objectives to estimate the proportion of nomophobia among undergraduate medical students of a tertiary care teaching institute in Kolkata and to find the factors associated with it. Materials and Methods: An observational study, cross-sectional in design, was conducted at a tertiary care teaching institute in Kolkata among 395 undergraduate medical students for a period of 8 weeks. Nomophobia Questionnaire scale was used to measure nomophobia. Data were analyzed using the SPSS software version 25.0. Multivariable multinomial logistic regression was performed to find the predictors of moderate and severe nomophobia. Results: All the medical students had some degree of nomophobia. About 26.8% of them had severe nomophobia, 61.3% had moderate nomophobia, and 11.9% had mild nomophobia. Age up to 20 years and the presence of addiction had statistically significant higher odds of severe nomophobia. Age up to 20 years, the presence of addiction, and up to 6 h' time spent per day with smart phone had significantly higher odds of moderate nomophobia. Conclusion: There was a high proportion of nomophobia among young budding doctors. Those who have already got moderate nomophobia should use smart phones more wisely and judiciously and avoid downloading addictive applications.
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Background: Medical students are already under extreme academic pressure which causes disruption in their sleep patterns. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, though they have been relieved of their hectic schedules this has also led to complete lack of hands-on training and bedside clinical teaching which might have given rise to increased anxiety in this population. Aims: To assess the sleeping pattern and determinants of poor sleep quality among medical students during the COVID-19 pandemic. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 343 undergraduate medical students of a tertiary care teaching hospital from August 17, 2020, to September 17, 2020, via an online questionnaire containing questions on sociodemographic parameters, lifestyle factors, Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, COVID-19-related stress and academic delay-related stress. Statistical Analysis: Analysis was done with the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) Version 20.0. Results: About 52.47% had a poor sleep quality;92.4% had a high level of academic uncertainty-related stress and 64.7% experienced a high level of COVID-19-related stress. Significant association was found between Poor Sleep Quality (PSQI score) and urban residence, nuclear family, smoking, excessive caffeine consumption, and high levels of COVID-19 stress. Conclusion: Although poor sleepers had decreased in number from before the COVID-19 pandemic, they were still much higher than the general population. This might be due to high levels of academic delay-related stress present virtually in the entire population. This can be circumvented by proper counseling of the students and sensitive planning of the academic activities once the pandemic will over. © Medical Journal of Dr. D.Y. Patil Vidyapeeth 2022.
ABSTRACT
Microblogging sites such as Twitter play an important role in dealing with various mass emergencies including natural disasters and pandemics. The FIRE2021 track on Information Retrieval from Microblogs during Disasters (IRMiDis) focused on two important tasks - (i) to identify claims or fact-checkable tweets, which is the first step towards verifying information posted on social media, and (ii) to detect the vaccine-related stance of tweets related to COVID-19 vaccines. © 2021 Owner/Author.
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Purpose: This study aims to analyze how English-language versions of e-newspapers in the first two countries affected, China and Japan, which are non-English-speaking countries and have different socio-economic and political settings, have highlighted Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic news and informed the global community. Design/methodology/approach: A text-mining approach was used to explore experts’ thoughts as published by the two leading English-language newspapers in China and Japan from January to March 2020. This study analyzes the Opinion section, which mainly comprises editorial and the op-ed section. The current study groups all editorial discussions and highlights into ten major aspects, which cover health, economy, politics, culture and others. Findings: Within the first three months, the media in both China and Japan shifted their focus from health and preparedness to the economy, politics and social welfare. Governance and social welfare were key concerns in China’s news media, while, in contrast, global politics received the highest level of attention from experts in Japan’s news media. Environment and technologies aspects did not receive much attention by the expert’s columns. Originality/value: At the initial stage of a world crisis, how leading nations and initially affected nations deal with the problem, how media play their role and guide mass population with experts’ thoughts are highlighted here. The understanding developed in this study can provide guidance to news media in other countries in playing effective roles in the management of this health crisis and catastrophes. © 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited.
ABSTRACT
Purpose This paper aims to understand how the Covid-19 pandemic has changed consumers' perceptions of outdoor consumption categories, such as retail shopping, eating out, public events and travel and how these perceptions may impact businesses in these domains in the long term. Further, this research aims to understand demographic effects on outdoor consumption inhibition during the current pandemic and discuss how businesses can use these insights to rebrand their offerings and evolve after the pandemic. Design/methodology/approach Data collected by CivicScience, a survey-based consumer intelligence research platform, during April-July 2020 forms the basis of the preliminary analysis, where the chi-square test has been used to examine significant differences in consumer attitudes between different age groups, income groups and genders. Further, a social media analysis of conversations around outdoor consumption activities is undertaken to understand the rationale behind these demographics-based attitude differences. Findings Results lend varying degrees of support to the hypothesized consumer attitudes toward outdoor consumption activities during the Covid-19 pandemic. As the pandemic wore on, older (vs younger), female (vs male) consumers and lower (vs higher) income-group consumers had reportedly higher inhibition toward different outdoor activities. Older individuals were significantly less likely to shop, dine and attend public events than younger individuals. Lower-income consumers were significantly less likely to dine and travel than higher-income consumer consumers. Female consumers were significantly less likely to shop and travel than male consumers. Social media scan of conversations suggests that differences in perceived health and financial risks may have resulted in demographics-based differences in outdoor consumption activities. Research limitations/implications This study contributes to the literature by understanding demographic differences in consumer participation in outdoor activities. One limitation is that due to the time-sensitive nature of the pandemic research, further studies could not be conducted to understand the implications of other variables, beyond demographics that influence consumer behavior during a crisis. A future research direction is to understand how other psychological variables or traits, influence health and financial risk-taking behavior during a similar crisis. Originality/value The principal contribution of the present research is that it tests the risk-taking theory in the context of outdoor consumption during the Covid-19 pandemic. The present research has implications for businesses as they continue to evolve during and post Covid-19.
ABSTRACT
With the increasing spread of the Covid-19 pandemic, restrictions on public life were strengthened across the world. Non-pharmaceutical interventions like stay-at-home orders, cancellations of events, work from home, etc. are the first line of defence to combat the spread of highly transmittable infections like Covid-19. But these interventions create whole new situations that urban residents need to cope with, which often creates mental distress. Home gardens, due to their therapeutic benefits, can help individuals to relax and unwind, thus reduce mental distress. Hence, the present study attempts to investigate whether home gardens moderate the effects on mental distress from confinement at homes due to the enforcement of stay-at-home orders. Samples (N = 408) were collected through an online question survey with urban residents across different parts of India. Moderation analysis reported the significant effect of home gardens in lowering mental distress. Further analysis with time spent in home gardens revealed that with increasing time spent from less than 10 min to more than 2 h, an individual score of stress and anxiety, and overall Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS)-21 scores had significantly decreased. These findings illustrate the beneficial properties of nature-based solutions, home gardens in this case, in improving mental health, even during the difficult times of the Covid-19 pandemic. Our results suggest the necessity of scaling up these nature-based solutions in urban planning processes to make the residents healthy and resilient.
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Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic had a disruptive effect on medical education services. Many medical schools curbed clinical interaction and replaced in-person classes with online methods. Baring a few review articles, research articles in this domain are scare. This study was done in the present context to understand the perspectives of the medical students on the different teaching methods adopted and the acceptability of those mechanisms from the view of the end-users is novel. Materials and Methods: This study was undertaken between 1 May 2020 to 15 May 2020 in 600-bed tertiary care teaching hospital in India having affiliation for both undergraduate and postgraduate medical teaching. A pre-structured questionnaire was randomly distributed to 500 students by sharing a link in the email addresses of the students. Data were entered and analysed in the Microsoft Excel 2010 using descriptive statistics. Results: So far as the different methods of online teaching are concerned, the Interactive online sessions were attended by 59.5% of the study respondents, 28.3% of the study respondents mentioned attending webinars while uploaded lectures were attended by 12.2% study respondents. 150 (57.3%) of the respondents mentioned that the online training sessions were equally effective as in-person training classes. However, a sizeable proportion of 90 (34.3%) respondents mentioned that the online training sessions were less effective. Conclusion: Though technology has been rapidly and innovatively used to ensure medical education services continue unhindered, it has thrown up major challenges. These challenges need to be addressed immediately if we need to reap its benefits in future. © IJCRR.