Beliefs about the effects of smoking on corona virus disease 2019 and its impact on the intention to quit and smoking frequencies among university students smokers in Jakarta, Indonesia

Introduction: Several scientific evidence showed that smoking can increase the severity and mortality rate of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). This indicates that the pandemic is the best time to reduce its frequency or stop the habit, but misinformation that smoking prevents infection has an effect on smokers' behavior. Therefore, this study aims to assess the beliefs about the effects of smoking on COVID-19 as well as to determine their relationship with smoking habits among university student smokers in Jakarta, Indonesia. Methods: This study was carried out in three Universities in Jakarta with a total of 198 respondents, who were selected conveniently. Furthermore, independent variables were derived from the Health Belief Model theory, while the dependent variables include quit intention and smoking frequency. Chi-square and ordinal regression analyses were carried out to determine the association between the variables. Results: The belief that smoking increases the severity of COVID-19 as well as having the determination to stop the habit, had an effect on the respondents' quit intention. Moreover, perceived barriers, such as feeling anxious (adjusted odds ratio [AOR]: 0.34, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.19-0.60) and being exposed to information that the habit prevents COVID-19 severity (AOR: 0.45, 95% CI: 0.01-0.71) were protective factors against the decrease in the number of cigarettes smoked daily. Conclusion: Improving digital health literacy, campaigns to clarify the risk of cigarettes, and self-efficacy related to cessation are important efforts to prevent smoking behavior during a pandemic. © 2022 Heart and Mind ;Published by Wolters Kluwer - Medknow.

Beliefs about the smoking effect on COVID-19 as significant factors in smoking cessation efforts

Owing to the various scientific evidence linking smoking to the increased risk of developing severe disease and death from the COVID-19 pandemic, now is a critical time for smokers to cut back or quit. This study aimed to analyze the influence of beliefs about smoking effects in relation to COVID-19 and attempts to quit smoking among university student smokers in Jakarta, Indonesia. This study was conducted in three different universities. As many as 198 respondents who were conveniently selected participated in this study. The health belief model (HBM) was adopted to determine the independent variables in this study. Having had a previous infection of COVID-19 influenced the smoking quitting attempts (AOR: 3.87, 1.49–10.0). Moreover, the belief that smoking increased COVID-19 severity, having a friend who reminded the respondents to not smoke during the pandemic, and having the ability to terminate smoking also increased the possibility for respondents to have a quit smoking attempt. However, perceived barriers such as feeling uncomfortable without smoking (AOR: 0.31, 0.15-0.6) were a protective factor against the attempt to quit smoking. Increasing smokers' confidence to quit smoking and education about the risk of smoking during the pandemic should be intensified to support smokers in successfully quitting the smoking habit. © 2023, Intelektual Pustaka Media Utama. All rights reserved.

Determinants of Preventive Behavioral Measures in Polling Stations during General Election in Indonesia

BACKGROUND: Various preventive measures have been taken aimed to prevent the spread of COVID-19, which caused major changes in most aspects of human life. One of activities impacted by the presence of the disease is national or regional elections. To prevent the spread of the disease during the election, the Indonesian General Election Commission issued a regulation to control the COVID-19 transmission. However, there was lack of information regarding the implementation of the COVID-19 preventive behavioral measures in polling stations during the election. AIM: The objective of this study is aimed to: (1) Describe and analyze determinants of the implementation of preventive behavioral measures implementation in polling stations during the local election and (2) examine differences of the COVID-19 daily cases before and after the local election in Indonesia. METHODS: The design of this study is cross-sectional. The data were collected in the election day until the next 7 days, from December 9–15, 2020, in Depok and South Tangerang cities. All of 463 respondents participated in this study with online self-administered questionnaire. Chi-squared test with CI 95% has been used to determine the item which is related to support voters and personnel in implementing the health protocols. RESULTS: The results of this study indicated the significant relationship between voter status and mask wearing (p = 0.017), physical distancing (p = 0.011), and hand washing (p = 0.036). The COVID-19 daily cases before and after the local election tend to fluctuate but there was an increase from November to December 2020. There was a significant difference of the COVID-19 daily cases before and after local elections in cities in Indonesia. CONCLUSION: The availability of facilities in polling stations and strengthening the policy will influence voters to do preventive behaviors such as mask wearing, physical distancing, and hand washing during the election. This study recommends the stakeholders to provide health protocol facilities at polling station and to create programs to increase the community compliance regarding the prevention of infectious diseases during the voting process.

Measuring the Success of PeduliLindungi Application Use for Supporting COVID-19 Prevention: A Case Study among College Students in Jakarta, Indonesia

The Indonesian Government has launched PeduliLindungi (PL) mobile apps as a COVID-19 preventive tool. This study aimed to describe the PL utilization and determine the factors influencing its successful use among college students. This study used a cross-sectional design and a total population sampling at a university in the Special Capital Region of Jakarta, Indonesia. The Delone and Mclean Information System Success Model was adopted to measure the use of the apps. The Spearman's rank correlation test was performed to determine the relationship between two variables. Furthermore, 354 respondents participated in this study. The respondents used the apps mostly to display the vaccination certificate and check in/out from public facilities. The overall user satisfaction value towards the application was 3.83 +/- 0.76. The system quality (rho = 0.621, p-value<0.001) and information quality (rho = 0.626, p-value<0.001) were associated with the user satisfaction while the user satisfaction (rho = 0.471, p-value<0.001), was correlated to the perceived benefit. In brief, perceived benefit was positively correlated with the user's satisfaction, whereas user satisfaction was positively correlated with self-efficacy, system quality, and information quality.

Using Health Belief Model for predicting COVID-19 prevention practices among university student and staff

Large-scale social restriction (PSBB-Pembatasan Sosial Berkala Besar) is a policy aimed at reducing the spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The purpose of this study was to determine the respondents' compliance behaviors towards the PSBB regulations according to the Health Belief Model. This cross-sectional study was conducted at a private university in Jakarta using quantitative methods. Data collection was carried out on July 2020, where 116 respondents were selected and recruited in the study using convenience non-probability sampling. Online self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data. The independent variables were adopted from Health Belief Model theory. These included;perceived susceptibility, perceived severity, health motivation, perceived benefit, perceived barrier and cues to action. The dependent variable was COVID-19 prevention behavior. Results showed that variables of health motivation (p-value=0.001), perceived benefits (p-value=0.008), and perceived barriers (p-value=0.007), advertising (p-value=0.027), counseling (p-value=0.001), and media access (p-value=0.000) had significant effects on the respondents' compliance to COVID-19 prevention behaviors. Multivariate analysis showed significant association of health motivation and perceived benefits with COVID-19 prevention behavior. An intervention is required to improve the community’s perception and belief towards the benefits and effectiveness of COVID-19 prevention behavior in preventing the COVID-19 pandemic. © 2022, Intelektual Pustaka Media Utama. All rights reserved.

Index of cardiac electrophysiological balance (iCEB) in patients with COVID-19

Aims: We aimed to examine whether there is abnormal value of index of cardiac electrophysiological balance (iCEB=QT/QRS) in patients with confirmed coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which can predict ventricular arrhythmias (VAs), including non-Torsades de Pointes-like ventricular tachycardia/ventricular fibrillation (non- TdPs-like VT/VF) in low iCEB and Torsades de Pointes (TdPs) in high iCEB. We also investigated low voltage ECG among COVID-19 group. Methods and Results: This is a cross-sectional, single center study with a total of 53 newly diagnosed COVID-19 patients (confirmed with polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test) and 63 age and sex-matched control subjects were included in the study. Electrocardiographic marker of iCEB were calculated manually from 12-lead ECG. Low voltage ECG defined as peak-to-peak QRS voltage less than 5mm in all limb leads and less than 10mm in all precordial leads. Patients with COVID-19 more often had low iCEB, defined as iCEB below 3.24 compared to control group (56.6% vs 11.1%), (OR=10.435;95%CI 4.015 - 27.123;p=0.000). There were no significant association between COVID-19 and high iCEB, defined as iCEB above 5.24 (OR=1.041;95%CI 0.485 - 2.235;p=0.917). There were no significant difference of the number of low voltage ECG between COVID-19 and control groups (15.1% vs 6.3%), (OR=2.622;95%CI 0.743 - 9.257, p=0.123). Conclusion: In this study showed that patients with COVID-19 are more likely to have low iCEB, suggesting that patients with COVID-19 may be proarrhytmic (towards non- TdPs-like VT/VF event), due to the alleged myocardial involvement in SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Evaluation of P wave abnormalities in newly diagnosed COVID-19

Aims: The aim of the current study was to evaluate P wave abnormalities, including prolonged P wave duration, prolonged P wave dispersion (PWD) and abnormal P wave axis (PWA) in newly diagnosed COVID-19 patients. Methods and Results: This is a cross-sectional, single center study with a total of 53 newly diagnosed COVID-19 patients (confirmed with polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test) and 63 age and sex-matched control subjects were included in the study. P wave dispersion, maximum P wave duration, and PWA were calculated manually from 12-lead ECG. Patients with COVID-19 more often had prolonged PWD, defined as PWD ≥ 36 ms compared to control group (37,7% vs 15,9%), (OR=3,212;95%CI 1,34 - 7,70;p=0,007). There were no significant association between COVID-19 and prolonged P wave (defined as maximum P wave duration > 106 ms) (OR=1,446;95%CI 0,454 - 4,6;p=0,531) and abnormal PWA (defined as any value of PWA outside 0 to 75°) (OR=5,061;95%CI 0,548 - 46,74;p=0,115). Conclusion: Our study showed that COVID-19 patients are more likely to have prolonged PWD compared to control patients. However, COVID-19 was not significantly associated with prolonged P wave and abnormal PWA. We believe that initial noninvasive evaluation of PWD may serve as a predictor of atrial arrhytmias often found in COVID-19 patients.

The impact of large-scale social restrictions on the incidence of COVID-19 : a case study of four provinces in Indonesia. (Special issue: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and responses.)

The Indonesian government has chosen to implement large-scale social restrictions, or Pembatasan Sosial Berskala Besar (PSBB), to minimize the spread of COVID-19. PSBB is a government policy aimed at restricting the internal movement of people in a bid to reduce the spread of SARS-CoV-2. This study aims to assess the impact of such large-scale social restriction measures on the incidence of COVID-19 cases in four provinces of Indonesia. Time series analysis was used to describe trends in COVID-19 cases by using surveillance data from the Ministry of Health of Indonesia. Quasi-Poisson regression with an interaction model was used to estimate the incidence rate ratio (IRR), and this was calculated to compare the incidence rate before and during PSBB implementation. The trend in COVID-19 cases in the provinces of West Java, East Java, Banten, and Jakarta has continued to fluctuate. These four provinces have continued to experience a significant increase in the COVID-19 incidence rate ratio after the implementation of the first and second PSBB periods compared to the period before PSBB implementation. Lack of proper implementation of the large-scale social restrictions has led to PSBB's ineffectiveness in reducing the number of COVID-19 cases in each of the provinces.