ABSTRACT
Attitudes and behaviors related to the COVID-19 pandemic and the climate change crisis might be driven by similar political beliefs and attitudes. The current study used a neo-Gramsci perspective to examine how political attitudes may be linked to COVID-19 prevention and climate change attitudes and behaviors. A longitudinal online survey in the US assessed climate change and COVID-19 attitudes and behaviors, and wave 7 (2021) data were used to predict outcomes at wave 8 (2022) among 572 respondents. There were significant correlations among the variables of political ideology, climate change concerns, COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy, COVID-19 skepticism, COVID-19 vaccine as a personal choice, COVID-19 conspiracy, political correctness, percent of Republican friends, and dislike of the Democratic Party. In the multivariate models, COVID-19 vaccination as a personal choice was significantly associated with the four outcomes: vaccination status, climate change actions, vaccine hesitancy, and climate change concerns. COVID-19 skepticism was significantly associated with vaccination status, vaccine hesitancy, and climate change concerns. These findings suggest that there are similar drivers of COVID-19 prevention and climate change attitudes and behaviors, and interventions need to be tailored to target individual-level and societal-level factors. © 2023 by the authors.
ABSTRACT
Since mass COVID-19 testing may be challenging for resource-scarce settings, effective disease management in developing countries need to resolve to different measures, which can be identified and prioritised by understanding health seeking behavior of a country's population. As the common practice of many developing nations' citizens is contacting local pharmacists and nonofficial health providers firstly when having health problems, these local health gatekeepers should be involved as first point of case detection, while accurate information regarding COVID-19 prevention and control can also be delivered through them in timely manner. Utilising local health gatekeepers has indeed been at the core of current success story of Vietnam in COVID-19 management. One of the examples of how understanding health seeking behavior of population can result in effective strategies for detecting and controlling SARS-COV-2 infections is the case of Vietnam. A low middle income country with health system facing numerous constrains, Vietnam has so far managed to keep the number of SARS-COV-2 confirmed infected cases at 382 and no mortality as of 18 July 2020, through effective utilization of the network of nonofficial, community-based health facilities and pharmacies, based on the knowledge that majority of the Vietnamese population would prefer going to these local, nonofficial health workforce when having health problems. They believe that current success The story will encourage similar resources around the world to pay more attention health-seeking behaviors of their populations and their impact on disease management when developing and implementing measures to monitor and detect COVID-19.
ABSTRACT
Vaccine hesitancy could become a significant impediment to addressing the COVID-19 pandemic. The current study examined the prevalence of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and factors associated with vaccine intentions. A national panel survey by the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) was designed to be representative of the US household population. Sampled respondents were invited to complete the survey between May 14 and 18, 2020 in English or Spanish. 1,056 respondents completed the survey - 942 via the web and 114 via telephone. The dependent variable was assessed by the item "If a vaccine against the coronavirus becomes available, do you plan to get vaccinated, or not?" Approximately half (53.6%) reported intending to be vaccinated, 16.7% did not intend, and 29.7% were unsure. In the adjusted stepwise multinominal logistic regression, Black and Hispanic respondents were significantly less likely to report intending to be vaccinated as were respondents who were females, younger, and those who were more politically conservative. Compared to those who reported positive vaccine intentions, respondents with negative vaccine intentions were significantly less likely to report that they engaged in the COVID-19 prevention behaviors of wearing masks (aOR = 0.53, CI = 0.37-0.76) and social distancing (aOR = 0.22, CI = 0.12-0.42). In a sub-analysis of reasons not to be vaccinated, significant race/ethnic differences were observed. This national survey indicated a modest level of COVID-19 vaccine intention. These data suggest that public health campaigns for vaccine uptake should assess in greater detail the vaccine concerns of Blacks, Hispanics, and women to tailor programs.
ABSTRACT
Novel coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) is a global threat to millions of lives. Enormous efforts in knowledge production have been made in the last few months, requiring a comprehensive analysis to examine the research gaps and to help guide an agenda for further studies. This study aims to explore the current research foci and their country variations regarding levels of income and COVID-19 transmission features. This textual analysis of 5780 publications extracted from the Web of Science, Medline, and Scopus databases was performed to explore the current research foci and propose further research agenda. The Latent Dirichlet allocation was used for topic modeling. Regression analysis was conducted to examine country variations in the research foci. Results indicate that publications are mainly contributed by the United States, China, and European countries. Guidelines for emergency care and surgical, viral pathogenesis, and global responses in the COVID-19 pandemic are the most common topics. There is variation in the research approaches to mitigate COVID-19 problems in countries with different income and transmission levels. Findings highlighted the need for global research collaborations among high- and low/middle-income countries in the different stages of pandemic prevention and control.
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES: Migrant workers are one of the most vulnerable population groups during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. This study investigated knowledge and awareness of COVID-19 among Indonesian migrant workers (IMWs) in Macao (SAR), Hong Kong (SAR), and Taiwan. STUDY DESIGN: This was a cross-sectional study. METHODS: Data were collected through an online survey in February and March 2020 to gain information on (1) participants' sociodemographic characteristics, (2) experience and awareness regarding COVID-19 information, and (3) knowledge and understanding of COVID-19. A series of Chi-squared, t-test, and logistic regression analyses were conducted. RESULTS: The survey was completed by 491 participants (92.1% female). Knowledge of COVID-19 was obtained from multiple sources, including a large proportion from online social media. However, participants who obtained information from their employer, local social networks, and migrant organisations answered a greater number of questions correctly. One-third of participants reported receiving hoax, fake news, and incorrect information and obtained information from unverified sources. Participants were most interested in information about how to cure COVID-19, and 57.8% knew that no specific drug or vaccine was currently available. Almost all participants correctly identified fever and wearing a facemask as the main COVID-19 symptom and prevention strategy, respectively. Participants with senior high school or higher education and who worked as domestic or care workers had a greater knowledge of COVID-19 than their counterparts. CONCLUSIONS: Public health communication strategies using multiple channels, including employers and community organisations, would help to minimise COVID-19 knowledge gaps. In addition, it is recommended that digital literacy content is added to public health campaigns.