ABSTRACT
Introduction: Social media and Internet use during disasters have been proven to be useful tools in helping public health agencies to respond to pandemics. However, this tool can also be the culprit in the spread of misinformation to the public. This study aims to identify the public health impact of misinformation during the COVID-19 pandemic using the socio-ecological model. Methods: A systematic review guided by the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines was initially undertaken by searching relevant articles published from January to November 2020 in several electronic databases including Medline, PubMed, and Springer link. All publications produced in English regarding the impact of misinformation during the COVID-19 outbreak were included except review articles. Results: Eleven articles were identified from these databases. The public health impact of misinformation from these articles was analysed and discussed according to the domains of the socio-ecological model. It was found that various elements of misinformation on the COVID-19 pandemic caused a significant impact on the individual, interpersonal, organisational, community, and policy levels across various nations. Conclusion: This study concludes that addressing misinformation during a pandemic such as the COVID-19 phenomenon is an important measure to improve public health response in mitigating the spread of pandemics. © 2023 Authors. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
Dyslexia refers to an impairment in reading, writing, and phonological aspects and is usually associated with language. Without proper screening, students may end up facing difficulties in their studies near the future. Currently, schools in Malaysia use an instrument called Instrumen Senarai Semak Diskleksia (ISD) which assesses either the student is a high probabilistic dyslexic student or not and whether the student needs further medical investigation. The manual nature of this instrument presents challenges for the teachers performing the assessment. Due to the large number of students being assessed it takes time and effort to tabulate the results. Also, it is difficult to store and retrieve efficiently. Further, the teachers face challenges in identifying the students' suitable learning styles. The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic which restricts face-to-face assessments exacerbates these challenges and highlights the need for an online assessment system. To overcome these problems, a web-based system to screen students with dyslexia and assess their learning style preferences has been developed using the VARK Model of Learning Styles. This system was developed using the waterfall model, encompassing requirements gathering, system design and system development. Future work may include an enhanced analysis of the generated results and email generation capabilities. © 2022 Author(s).