Acceptance of e-learning applications by accounting students in an online learning environment at residential universities

Technology acceptance models have been used in the higher education context to understand students' acceptance of various learning technologies. Not only was the use of e-learning technologies heightened during the COVID-19 pandemic, but the shift to predominantly online teaching and learning was abrupt. It has become clear that acceptance of e-learning technology will be crucial for higher education in a post-COVID-19 world. Thus, the purpose of this study was to determine the acceptance of e-learning applications by accounting students at residential universities in South Africa. The Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT2) was adapted for this study to examine the relevance of its constructs in understanding students' intent to use e-learning applications. Accounting students registered at four South African universities completed an electronic questionnaire (n = 1 864). Structural Equation Modelling using the Partial Least Squares method was used to test the hypothesised relationships. The findings indicate that performance expectancy, social influence, facilitating conditions, and habit have a significant relationship with behavioural intention to use e-learning applications. However, gender, academic performance, and level of study do not have a significant moderating effect on these relationships. The study reported in this paper contributes to technology acceptance research by testing the UTAUT2 model in a cross-institutional context with a larger sample size than used in similar studies. Furthermore, it has practical value for higher education policymakers, institutions, and lecturers in their attempts to adapt to blended and online learning models. © 2022 South African Journal of Accounting Research.

Outcomes of hospitalized COVID-19 patients belonging to ethnic/racial minorities in Greece

INTRODUCTION Research suggests that racial minorities are overrepresented in the number of COVID-19 related deaths compared to people of White origin. This is the first study to assess racial differences in the clinical characteristics and outcomes of COVID-19 positive patients, hospitalized in Greece. METHODS This retrospective, cross-sectional study included 628 COVID-19 hospitalized patients, from 10 September to 31 December 2020. We compared data concerning gender, age, comorbidities and outcome, between patients of European and non-European origin. Moreover, we applied logistic regression in which the outcome, in our case in-hospital death, was assessed with race, age, sex, and Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI) score. RESULTS In the first and unadjusted race-only logistic regression model, non-Europeans (OR=0.057;95% CI: 0.008-0.411, p=0.005) were less likely than European patients to die in the hospital. However, controlling for sex, age and CCI score resulted in non-significant differences. CONCLUSIONS There are a lot of statistically significant differences between European and non-European COVID-19 hospitalized patients regarding their clinical characteristics, with the second presenting a lower hospital mortality rate, but after adjusting for age, sex and CCI score, race seems to be not significant. Copyright © 2022 Alexandrou M. et al.

Acceptance of e-learning applications by accounting students in an online learning environment at residential universities

Technology acceptance models have been used in the higher education context to understand students’ acceptance of various learning technologies. Not only was the use of e-learning technologies heightened during the COVID-19 pandemic, but the shift to predominantly online teaching and learning was abrupt. It has become clear that acceptance of e-learning technology will be crucial for higher education in a post-COVID-19 world. Thus, the purpose of this study was to determine the acceptance of e-learning applications by accounting students at residential universities in South Africa. The Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT2) was adapted for this study to examine the relevance of its constructs in understanding students’ intent to use e-learning applications. Accounting students registered at four South African universities completed an electronic questionnaire (n = 1 864). Structural Equation Modelling using the Partial Least Squares method was used to test the hypothesised relationships. The findings indicate that performance expectancy, social influence, facilitating conditions, and habit have a significant relationship with behavioural intention to use e-learning applications. However, gender, academic performance, and level of study do not have a significant moderating effect on these relationships. The study reported in this paper contributes to technology acceptance research by testing the UTAUT2 model in a cross-institutional context with a larger sample size than used in similar studies. Furthermore, it has practical value for higher education policymakers, institutions, and lecturers in their attempts to adapt to blended and online learning models. © 2022 South African Journal of Accounting Research.

What pandemic teaches us about the patient of a pain center

Although pain treatment has been described as a fundamental human right, the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic forced healthcare systems worldwide to redistribute healthcare resources toward intensive care units and other COVID-19 dedicated sites. As most chronic pain services were subsequently deemed non-urgent, all outpatient and elective interventional procedures have been reduced or interrupted during the COVID-19 pandemic in order to reduce the risk of viral spread. The shutdown of pain services jointly to the home lockdown imposed by governments has affected chronic pain management worldwide with additional impact on patients' psychological health. Chronic pain is a complex multidimensional experience severely compromising the QoL, often limited ability to work, sleep, and affected social interactions with friends and family. Because of compromised health care services and their limited accessibility during the pandemic, socioeconomic disadvantages, and exposure to enhanced phychological stressors, patients with chronic pain may experience an exacerbation of symptoms. Telehealth and telemedicine have been suggested as a means for treating chronic pain patients at home in nonemergent conditions, as well as to assure continuity of care of patients after hospital discharge. Many technical solutions, with different costs and benefits, have been utilized for remote assessment and treatment of chronic pain. Telephone consultation is the first and low-cost example of telemedicine for remote treatment of pain. As a matter of fact, the evidence on telemedicine efficacy in chronic pain is lacking according to some published systematic reviews [MartorellaG, 2017 and SlatteryBW, 2019], including a Cochrane review [EcclestonC, 2014]. The effects of psychological therapies delivered via the Internet on pain, disability, depression, and anxiety are promising but come from a small number of trials so that the estimate of the effects remains to be assessed.