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Kwedi Nolna S, Mbang Massom D, Tchoteke LA, Bille Koffi A, Marchant M, Masumbe Netongo P. Perceptions around COVID-19 among patients and community members in urban areas in Cameroon: A qualitative perspective. PLOS GLOBAL PUBLIC HEALTH 2024; 4:e0001760. [PMID: 38363774 PMCID: PMC10871494 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgph.0001760] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/05/2023] [Accepted: 12/12/2023] [Indexed: 02/18/2024]
Abstract
At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Cameroonian government, to abide by international regulations, prescribed preventive measures, which affected many aspects of social, political, economic, and cultural life. However, there needs to be more in-depth exploration of how communities in Cameroon perceived and were impacted by COVID-19. We explored perceptions and misconceptions concerning COVID-19's impact on urban communities' daily lives in Cameroon. We conducted semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions with a heterogeneous sample of 25 participants from five different social categories (health personnel, patients with a confirmed COVID-19 infection, close contacts of patients, community members, and community leaders) to assess their perceptions of the disease. Interviews and FGDs were recorded, fully transcribed, coded manually, and analyzed using a thematic analysis iterative coding process. Three main themes were identified: 1) Knowledge of COVID-19: antagonism between disease and invention, 2) Barrier measures imposed by the "dominant culture," and 3) Impact of COVID-19 on daily lives. Our study revealed perceptions around general knowledge of the COVID-19 pandemic, noting acceptance and observation of government-imposed protective measures while highlighting the significant changes endured in participants' daily lives. These findings draw attention to the need to develop flexible and appropriate response strategies for different communities. Although Cameroonian populations were not as intensely affected by the burden of the disease of COVID-19 as other regions, they were still compelled to follow static "cookie-cutter" measures that were internationally imposed, affecting their daily lives in ways that seemed disproportionate to their own experiences of the crisis. These findings have potential implications for the legitimacy of public health institutions and responses.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sylvie Kwedi Nolna
- Faculty of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, University of Yaoundé, Yaoundé, Cameroon
- Capacity for Leadership Excellence and Research (CLEAR), Yaoundé, Cameroon
| | | | | | - Aristide Bille Koffi
- Research Department, Youth Action for Health and Social Change, Yaoundé, Cameroon
| | - Mark Marchant
- Faculty of Public Health & Policy, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London, United Kingdom
| | - Palmer Masumbe Netongo
- Faculty of Sciences, University of Yaoundé 1, Yaoundé, Cameroon
- Molecular Diagnostics Research Group, Biotechnology Centre-University of Yaounde I, Yaoundé, Cameroon
- School of Science, Navajo Technical University, Crownpoint, New Mexico, United States of America
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Affiliation(s)
- Mohamud Sheek-Hussein
- Institute of Public Health; College of Medicine and Health Sciences, United Arab Emirates University Al-Ain, United Arab Emirates
- Harvard University, T.H Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA
- Loma Linda University School of Public Health, Loma Linda, California, USA
| | - Fikri M Abu-Zidan
- The Research Office, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, United Arab Emirates University Al-Ain, United Arab Emirates
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Mejia CR, Aveiro-Robalo TR, Garlisi Torales LD, Fernández MF, Bonilla-Rodríguez FE, Estigarribia E, Coronel-Ocampos JM, Caballero-Arzamendia CJ, Torres RR, Conde-Escobar A, Canaviri-Murillo Y, Castro-Pacoricona D, Serna-Alarcón V, Arias-Chávez D. Basic COVID-19 knowledge according to education level and country of residence: Analysis of twelve countries in Latin America. Front Med (Lausanne) 2022; 9:978795. [PMID: 36250085 PMCID: PMC9557050 DOI: 10.3389/fmed.2022.978795] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/26/2022] [Accepted: 08/24/2022] [Indexed: 11/29/2022] Open
Abstract
Introduction Knowing a disease is crucial for being able to fight it, especially in a region in which COVID-19 caused so many deaths, such as Latin America. Objective To determine the association between basic knowledge of COVID-19 and education level according to country of residence in Latin America. Methodology This is an analytical cross-sectional study. Basic level of knowledge was measured through nine close-ended questions (scale validated in Peru). The score obtained was analyzed through performing a crosstab vs. gender, age, education level, and country of residence. Results Of a total of 9,222 respondents, almost all of them knew the common symptoms (99%), modes of transmission (93%), and knew how to recognize which was not a specific symptom (93%). Through the multivariate model, we found that there was no association with gender (p = 0.716) or age (p = 0.059), in comparison with those who had primary or a lower education level. All the other higher education levels had statistically significant scores (all p-values p < 0.001). When comparing knowledge according to countries, and using Peru as reference for comparison, Chile, Paraguay, Mexico, Bolivia, Panama, Ecuador, Costa Rica, and Colombia had a better level of knowledge (all p-values < 0.001); however, only El Salvador had a lower level (p < 0.001). Discussion There was lack of knowledge of some topics, difference according to academic degree and country. As Peru was one of countries that obtained the lowest level of knowledge, it could have influenced the fact that it was the most affected country in the world.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christian R. Mejia
- Translational Medicine Research Centre. Universidad Norbert Wiener, Lima, Peru
| | | | | | - Maria Fernanda Fernández
- Universidad Privada de Tacna, Centro de Investigación de Estudiantes de Medicina (CIESMED), Tacna, Peru
- Asociación Médica de Investigación y Servicios en Salud, Lima, Peru
| | | | | | | | | | - Renato R. Torres
- Universidad Privada de Tacna, Centro de Investigación de Estudiantes de Medicina (CIESMED), Tacna, Peru
- Asociación Médica de Investigación y Servicios en Salud, Lima, Peru
| | - Aram Conde-Escobar
- Universidad Privada de Tacna, Centro de Investigación de Estudiantes de Medicina (CIESMED), Tacna, Peru
- Asociación Médica de Investigación y Servicios en Salud, Lima, Peru
| | - Yuliana Canaviri-Murillo
- Universidad Privada de Tacna, Centro de Investigación de Estudiantes de Medicina (CIESMED), Tacna, Peru
- Asociación Médica de Investigación y Servicios en Salud, Lima, Peru
| | - Diana Castro-Pacoricona
- Universidad Privada de Tacna, Centro de Investigación de Estudiantes de Medicina (CIESMED), Tacna, Peru
- Asociación Médica de Investigación y Servicios en Salud, Lima, Peru
| | - Victor Serna-Alarcón
- Antenor Orrego Private University, Trujillo, Peru
- Hospital José Cayetano Heredia, Piura, Peru
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Balakrishnan V, Ng WZ, Soo MC, Han GJ, Lee CJ. Infodemic and fake news - A comprehensive overview of its global magnitude during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021: A scoping review. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF DISASTER RISK REDUCTION : IJDRR 2022; 78:103144. [PMID: 35791376 PMCID: PMC9247231 DOI: 10.1016/j.ijdrr.2022.103144] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/20/2021] [Revised: 06/22/2022] [Accepted: 06/23/2022] [Indexed: 05/04/2023]
Abstract
The spread of fake news increased dramatically during the COVID-19 pandemic worldwide. This study aims to synthesize the extant literature to understand the magnitude of this phenomenon in the wake of the pandemic in 2021, focusing on the motives and sociodemographic profiles, Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based tools developed, and the top trending topics related to fake news. A scoping review was adopted targeting articles published in five academic databases (January 2021-November 2021), resulting in 97 papers. Most of the studies were empirical in nature (N = 69) targeting the general population (N = 26) and social media users (N = 13), followed by AI-based detection tools (N = 27). Top motives for fake news sharing include low awareness, knowledge, and health/media literacy, Entertainment/Pass Time/Socialization, Altruism, and low trust in government/news media, whilst the phenomenon was more prominent among those with low education, males and younger. Machine and deep learning emerged to be the widely explored techniques in detecting fake news, whereas top topics were related to vaccine, virus, cures/remedies, treatment, and prevention. Immediate intervention and prevention efforts are needed to curb this anti-social behavior considering the world is still struggling to contain the spread of the COVID-19 virus.
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Affiliation(s)
- Vimala Balakrishnan
- Faculty of Computer Science & Information Technology, Universiti Malaya, 50603, Lembah Pantai, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
| | - Wei Zhen Ng
- Faculty of Computer Science & Information Technology, Universiti Malaya, 50603, Lembah Pantai, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
| | - Mun Chong Soo
- Faculty of Computer Science & Information Technology, Universiti Malaya, 50603, Lembah Pantai, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
| | - Gan Joo Han
- Faculty of Computer Science & Information Technology, Universiti Malaya, 50603, Lembah Pantai, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
| | - Choon Jiat Lee
- Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Malaya, 50603, Lembah Pantai, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
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Wang Y, Gao S, Gao W. Investigating dynamic relations between factual information and misinformation: Empirical studies of tweets related to prevention measures during COVID‐19. JOURNAL OF CONTINGENCIES AND CRISIS MANAGEMENT 2021. [PMCID: PMC8652553 DOI: 10.1111/1468-5973.12385] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
Abstract
During COVID‐19, misinformation on social media has affected people's adoption of appropriate prevention behaviors. Although an array of approaches have been proposed to suppress misinformation, few have investigated the role of disseminating factual information during crises. None has examined its effect on suppressing misinformation quantitatively using longitudinal social media data. Therefore, this study investigates the temporal correlations between factual information and misinformation, and intends to answer whether previously predominant factual information can suppress misinformation. It focuses on two prevention measures, that is, wearing masks and social distancing, using tweets collected from April 3 to June 30, 2020, in the United States. We trained support vector machine classifiers to retrieve relevant tweets and classify tweets containing factual information and misinformation for each topic concerning the prevention measures’ effects. Based on cross‐correlation analyses of factual and misinformation time series for both topics, we find that the previously predominant factual information leads the decrease of misinformation (i.e., suppression) with a time lag. The research findings provide empirical understandings of dynamic relations between misinformation and factual information in complex online environments and suggest practical strategies for future misinformation management during crises and emergencies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yan Wang
- Department of Urban and Regional Planning and Florida Institute for Built Environment Resilience University of Florida Gainesville Florida USA
| | - Shangde Gao
- Department of Urban and Regional Planning and Florida Institute for Built Environment Resilience, College of Design, Construction and Planning University of Florida Gainesville Florida USA
| | - Wenyu Gao
- Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Harvard University Boston Massachusetts 02115 USA
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Neely S, Eldredge C, Sanders R. Health Information Seeking Behaviors on Social Media During the COVID-19 Pandemic Among American Social Networking Site Users: Survey Study. J Med Internet Res 2021; 23:e29802. [PMID: 34043526 PMCID: PMC8202660 DOI: 10.2196/29802] [Citation(s) in RCA: 74] [Impact Index Per Article: 24.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/20/2021] [Revised: 05/26/2021] [Accepted: 05/26/2021] [Indexed: 02/06/2023] Open
Abstract
Background In recent years, medical journals have emphasized the increasingly critical role that social media plays in the dissemination of public health information and disease prevention guidelines. However, platforms such as Facebook and Twitter continue to pose unique challenges for clinical health care providers and public health officials alike. In order to effectively communicate during public health emergencies, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, it is increasingly critical for health care providers and public health officials to understand how patients gather health-related information on the internet and adjudicate the merits of such information. Objective With that goal in mind, we conducted a survey of 1003 US-based adults to better understand how health consumers have used social media to learn and stay informed about the COVID-19 pandemic, the extent to which they have relied on credible scientific information sources, and how they have gone about fact-checking pandemic-related information. Methods A web-based survey was conducted with a sample that was purchased through an industry-leading market research provider. The results were reported with a 95% confidence level and a margin of error of 3. Participants included 1003 US-based adults (aged ≥18 years). Participants were selected via a stratified quota sampling approach to ensure that the sample was representative of the US population. Balanced quotas were determined (by region of the country) for gender, age, race, and ethnicity. Results The results showed a heavy reliance on social media during the COVID-19 pandemic; more than three-quarters of respondents (762/1003, 76%) reported that they have relied on social media at least “a little,” and 59.2% (594/1003) of respondents indicated that they read information about COVID-19 on social media at least once per week. According to the findings, most social media users (638/1003, 63.6%) were unlikely to fact-check what they see on the internet with a health professional, despite the high levels of mistrust in the accuracy of COVID-19–related information on social media. We also found a greater likelihood of undergoing vaccination among those following more credible scientific sources on social media during the pandemic (χ216=50.790; φ=0.258; P<.001). Conclusions The findings suggest that health professionals will need to be both strategic and proactive when engaging with health consumers on social media if they hope to counteract the deleterious effects of misinformation and disinformation. Effective training, institutional support, and proactive collaboration can help health professionals adapt to the evolving patterns of health information seeking.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stephen Neely
- School of Public Affairs, College of Arts and Sciences, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, United States
| | - Christina Eldredge
- School of Information, College of Arts and Sciences, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, United States
| | - Ron Sanders
- Florida Center for Cybersecurity, School of Information, College of Arts and Sciences, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, United States
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