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Fulltext FACTORS INFLUENCING CONSUMERS IN USING SHOPEE FOR ONLINE PURCHASE INTENTION IN EAST COAST MALAYSIA

KIEW CHEE CHING, ZUHA ROSUFILA ABU HASAN, NADIA ABU HASAN

UMT Journal of Undergraduate Research, 2021;3(1):45-56.
MyJurnal

Shopee online has become increasingly popular among consumers for purchasing purposes as compared to brick-and-mortar retail due to the benefits and enjoyment that come with it. However, Shopee has facing intense competitive challenges with other competitors in Malaysia. In addition, it is also difficult for Shopee to compete with major leader of online shopping portal although this platform offers the same function and usage as its contender. Hence, it is important to understand consumer perceptions on the benefit and intention of using Shopee. This study examines consumer perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, perceived price, perceived convenience and perceived trust adapted from the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). 208 respondents who have experience online purchasing in East Cost of Malaysia were invited to participate in this study using online survey. Data were analyzed using descriptive, correlation and multiple regression analyses. The findings show that perceived convenience and perceived trust have strong influence towards consumer intention to use Shopee as platform to do online purchase. It is suggested that this study will help practitioners to understand consumer online shopping perception and intention in order to induce visitation and usage of Shopee.

Matched MeSH terms: Trust
Performance measures of strategic university-industry collaborations in Malaysia: dyadic multicases approach

Chong, Aik Lee, Sakaria Abas, Yee, Angelina Seow Voon

CREAM : Current Research in Malaysia (Penyelidikan Terkini di Malaysia), 2013;2(1):5-24.
MyJurnal

Collaboration without performance measures is likened to a football game without a scoreboard. Traditionally, universities have operated in isolation industry and vice versa. University and industry were formed with different agenda and objectives. Fundamentally, a university is a nonprofit oriented organisation while industry is profit oriented. However, industrialisation and egalitarian awakening in the early 20'" century gradually brought university and industry together. Currently, university and industry are increasingly seeking avenues to collaborate strategically. Nevertheless, 50% to 70% of collaborative efforts fail prematurely due to the lack of performance measures. In light of that, there is a need to search for a set of holistic performance measures. Therefore, this study is undertaken to determine the performance measures of strategic university industry collaborations in Malaysia using dyadic multicases approach. The researcher analyses multiple cases from the perspectives of university and industry within a bounded system via qualitative research methodology. Interviews respondents were from university and industry. From the 68 interviews conducted, university and industry respondents shared their experiences on the need for performance measures to include trust, commitment, enterprise, communication, complementary, flexibility, commercialisation and resources on top of conventional performance measures like agreed objectives, timelines, financial indicators and reporting. With that, a set of holistic performance measures is established from interviews. The main contributions of the research findings are: (i) to policy-making for the Ministry of Higher Education of Malaysia; and (ii) to the body of knowledge in investigating the performance measures in satisfactory performance of strategic university-industry collaboration.

Matched MeSH terms: Trust
Fulltext Interpersonal touch: the lost art of mankind - a review

Choy, H.H., Khalib, A.L.

Malaysian Journal of Public Health Medicine, 2013;13(1):48-58.
MyJurnal

Surprisingly little was known about the importance of touch in life which was placed at a lower emphasis than the rest-namely visual, auditory, olfactory sense and etc. This writing aimed to decipher the significances of interpersonal touch, its culture, practices, barriers and challenges, which were then conveyed to the public as a form of health promotion. Methodology includes narrative review where the suitable literatures used were searched using ScienceDirect database under the keywords of “Interpersonal Touch”, “Oxytocin” and “Touch”. In this review, we have highlighted some of the most critical points which should have been promoted to the public. For example, touch satisfies individual psychosomatic and psychosocial needs. It forms a non-verbal communication culture which interacts about emotions, trust, compliance and more. Furthermore, it has been linked to the secretion of multifunctional bioactive chemical-oxytocin which was well-known in its therapeutic advantages for a wide range of commonest chronic diseases and social ills. Although some dysfunctional consequences may be resulted, incorporating genuine interpersonal touch into today’s efforts is undeniably viewed as a good option in solving many social problems.

Matched MeSH terms: Trust
Fulltext Should doctors apologize and disclose medical errors?

Aimi Nadia Mohd Yusof

Medical Health Reviews, 2009;2009(2):5-16.
MyJurnal

No vaccination is available to provide doctors with the immunity from errors and mistakes. Humans make mistakes everyday and eventually doctors will make mistakes or errors during their practice. Therefore, knowing how to handle the mistakes is crucial in improving patient safety and management. Disclosure of errors can be argued to play a significant role in respecting the patients’ rights and interest. We need to know that in a doctor-patient relationship, trust and vulnerability exist. If errors occur and doctors try to keep patients away from the truth, patients may no longer maintain their trust and this could lead to a negative turn in the relationship. Moreover, if errors are disclosed, doctors then may face a legal and ethical dilemma on whether to apologize for the errors made. This issue of apology has created debates among health professionals and lawyers in searching for the best answer. Apology can be a powerful tool to reconcile relationships but at the same time can also be a tool of deception.

Matched MeSH terms: Trust
Fulltext Low organ donation rate in Malaysia: a survey

Makmor T, Abdillah N, Raja Noriza RA, Nurulhuda MS, Sook-Lu Y, Soo-Kun L, et al.

JUMMEC, 2014;17(1):14-17.
MyJurnal

Organ shortage is a major concern in many countries. The objective of this paper was to investigate the factors that contribute to the low quantity of organ donation in Malaysia. The 1311 respondents in this survey came from the three main ethnic groups in Malaysia (Malay, Chinese and Indian). The survey was based on these components: The reason for not pledging to become a donor; the reason of refusing to become a donor; and whether non-fungible incentive would influence decision. The lack of information and trust were the factors that influenced the respondents to remain apathetic to organ donation. The results denote that people are unlikely to become a donor even if non-fungible incentive were provided to them. Thus, it is important for the government bodies to evaluate the programme and strategies of public education in relation to organ donation.

Matched MeSH terms: Trust
Fulltext Patients' perception of the information security management in health centers: the role of organizational and human factors

Peikari HR, T R, Shah MH, Lo MC

BMC Med Inform Decis Mak, 2018 Nov 15;18(1):102.
PMID: 30442138 DOI: 10.1186/s12911-018-0681-z

BACKGROUND: Researchers paid little attention to understanding the association of organizational and human factors with patients' perceived security in the context of health organizations. This study aims to address numerous gaps in this context. Patients' perceptions about employees' training on security issues, monitoring on security issues, ethics, physical & technical protection and trust in hospitals were identified as organizational and human factors.
METHODS: After the development of 12 hypotheses, a quantitative, cross-sectional, self-administered survey method was applied to collect data in 9 hospitals in Iran. After the collection of 382 usable questionnaires, the partial least square structural modeling was applied to examine the hypotheses and it was found that 11 hypotheses were empirically supported.
RESULTS: The results suggest that patients' trust in hospitals can significantly predict their perceived security but no significant associations were found between patients' physical protection mechanisms in the hospital and their perceived information security in a hospital. We also found that patients' perceptions about the physical protection mechanism of a hospital can significantly predict their trust in hospitals which is a novel finding by this research.
CONCLUSIONS: The findings imply that hospitals should formulate policies to improve patients' perception about such factors, which ultimately lead to their perceived security.

Matched MeSH terms: Trust
Fulltext Determinants of the willingness to participate in biobanking among Malaysian stakeholders in the Klang Valley

Amin L, Hashim H, Mahadi Z, Ismail K

BMC Med Res Methodol, 2018 12 05;18(1):163.
PMID: 30518344 DOI: 10.1186/s12874-018-0619-2

BACKGROUND: The demand in biobanking for the collection and maintenance of biological specimens and personal data from civilians to improve the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of diseases has increased notably. Despite the advancement, certain issues, specifically those related to privacy and data protection, have been critically discussed. The purposes of this study are to assess the willingness of stakeholders to participate in biobanking and to determine its predictors.

METHODS: A survey of 469 respondents from various stakeholder groups in the Klang Valley region of Malaysia was carried out. Based on previous research, a multi-dimensional instrument measuring willingness to participate in biobanking, and its predictors, was constructed and validated. A single step Structural Equation Modelling was performed to analyse the measurements and structural model using the International Business Machines Corporation Software Package for Social Sciences, Analysis of Moment Structures (IBM SPSS Amos) version 20 with a maximum likelihood function.

RESULTS: Malaysian stakeholders in the Klang Valley were found to be cautious of biobanks. Although they perceived the biobanks as moderately beneficial (mean score of 4.65) and were moderately willing to participate in biobanking (mean score of 4.10), they professed moderate concern about data and specimen protection issues (mean score of 4.33). Willingness to participate in biobanking was predominantly determined by four direct predictors: specific application-linked perceptions of their benefits (β = 0.35, p trust in key players (β = 0.20, p trust in key players) as well as indirect factors are well accounted for.

Matched MeSH terms: Trust
Fulltext Trusted computing strengthens cloud authentication

Ghazizadeh E, Zamani M, Ab Manan JL, Alizadeh M

ScientificWorldJournal, 2014;2014:260187.
PMID: 24701149 DOI: 10.1155/2014/260187

Cloud computing is a new generation of technology which is designed to provide the commercial necessities, solve the IT management issues, and run the appropriate applications. Another entry on the list of cloud functions which has been handled internally is Identity Access Management (IAM). Companies encounter IAM as security challenges while adopting more technologies became apparent. Trust Multi-tenancy and trusted computing based on a Trusted Platform Module (TPM) are great technologies for solving the trust and security concerns in the cloud identity environment. Single sign-on (SSO) and OpenID have been released to solve security and privacy problems for cloud identity. This paper proposes the use of trusted computing, Federated Identity Management, and OpenID Web SSO to solve identity theft in the cloud. Besides, this proposed model has been simulated in .Net environment. Security analyzing, simulation, and BLP confidential model are three ways to evaluate and analyze our proposed model.

Matched MeSH terms: Trust*
Fulltext Relationship between trusting behaviors and psychometrics associated with social network and depression among young generation: a pilot study

Watabe M, Kato TA, Teo AR, Horikawa H, Tateno M, Hayakawa K, et al.

PLoS One, 2015;10(3):e0120183.
PMID: 25836972 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0120183

Maladaptive social interaction and its related psychopathology have been highlighted in psychiatry especially among younger generations. In Japan, novel expressive forms of psychiatric phenomena such as "modern-type depression" and "hikikomori" (a syndrome of severe social withdrawal lasting for at least six months) have been reported especially among young people. Economic games such as the trust game have been utilized to evaluate real-world interpersonal relationships as a novel candidate for psychiatric evaluations. To investigate the relationship between trusting behaviors and various psychometric scales, we conducted a trust game experiment with eighty-one Japanese university students as a pilot study. Participants made a risky financial decision about whether to trust each of 40 photographed partners. Participants then answered a set of questionnaires with seven scales including the Lubben Social Network Scale (LSNS)-6 and the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ)-9. Consistent with previous research, male participants trusted partners more than female participants. Regression analysis revealed that LSNS-family (perceived support from family) for male participants, and item 8 of PHQ-9 (subjective agitation and/or retardation) for female participants were associated with participants' trusting behaviors. Consistent with claims by social scientists, our data suggest that, for males, support from family was negatively associated with cooperative behavior toward non-family members. Females with higher subjective agitation (and/or retardation) gave less money toward males and high attractive females, but not toward low attractive females in interpersonal relationships. We believe that our data indicate the possible impact of economic games in psychiatric research and clinical practice, and validation in clinical samples including modern-type depression and hikikomori should be investigated.

Matched MeSH terms: Trust*
Fulltext The influence of servicescape and service credibility on older adults' intention to recover

Lai KP, Chong SC

J Health Organ Manag, 2020 Feb 12;ahead-of-print(ahead-of-print).
PMID: 32064822 DOI: 10.1108/JHOM-07-2019-0215

PURPOSE: Based on the stimuli-organism-response (SOR) model and relationship marketing theory, the paper aims to examine whether servicescape influences trust, service credibility and affective commitment amongst older adults, and their effects on the intention to recover in a rehabilitation setting.
DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH: The study takes a quantitative approach, applying confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation model to examine the responses. A total of 400 data were collected using questionnaires distributed to older adults in Malaysia. Respondents were selected based on two criteria: they should be over 65 years, and they should have been visiting the rehabilitation centres in the last 12 months.
FINDINGS: The results suggest that trust and affective commitment play significant roles in increasing the intention of older adults to recover. Contradicting previous research findings, service credibility does not have any significant impact on the intention to recover as hypothesised. The direct effect of service credibility on trust and affective commitment enhances the premise further that the relationship between service credibility and intention to recover is primarily indirect. Even though we expect servicescape to be a significant driver in forming the behaviour of older adults, its impact on intention to recover, trust and affective commitment remain non-significant, with the exception of service credibility.
ORIGINALITY/VALUE: Past studies have focused on the roles of servicescape and service credibility separately. We have extended the literature by examining the combined effects of both servicescape and service credibility. The findings, therefore, contribute to a deeper understanding of the literature on the intention-behaviour relationship in the context of healthcare, as well as in service marketing.

Matched MeSH terms: Trust*
Fulltext Revisiting the Measurement of Anomie

Teymoori A, Jetten J, Bastian B, Ariyanto A, Autin F, Ayub N, et al.

PLoS One, 2016;11(7):e0158370.
PMID: 27383133 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0158370

Sociologists coined the term "anomie" to describe societies that are characterized by disintegration and deregulation. Extending beyond conceptualizations of anomie that conflate the measurements of anomie as 'a state of society' and as a 'state of mind', we disentangle these conceptualizations and develop an analysis and measure of this phenomenon focusing on anomie as a perception of the 'state of society'. We propose that anomie encompasses two dimensions: a perceived breakdown in social fabric (i.e., disintegration as lack of trust and erosion of moral standards) and a perceived breakdown in leadership (i.e., deregulation as lack of legitimacy and effectiveness of leadership). Across six studies we present evidence for the validity of the new measure, the Perception of Anomie Scale (PAS). Studies 1a and 1b provide evidence for the proposed factor structure and internal consistency of PAS. Studies 2a-c provide evidence of convergent and discriminant validity. Finally, assessing PAS in 28 countries, we show that PAS correlates with national indicators of societal functioning and that PAS predicts national identification and well-being (Studies 3a & 3b). The broader implications of the anomie construct for the study of group processes are discussed.

Matched MeSH terms: Trust*
Trust in Supervisor and Job Engagement: Mediating Effects of Psychological Safety and Felt Obligation

Basit AA

J Psychol, 2017 Nov 17;151(8):701-721.
PMID: 29043913 DOI: 10.1080/00223980.2017.1372350

In the social context of job engagement, the role of trust in supervisor in predicting engagement of employees has received attention in research. Very limited research, however, has investigated the mechanisms mediating this dynamic relationship. To address this important gap in knowledge, the aim of this study was to examine psychological safety and felt obligation as two psychological mechanisms mediating the effect of trust in supervisor on job engagement. Drawing from job engagement and social exchange theories, the mediating roles of psychological safety and felt obligation in the trust-engagement relationship were empirically investigated in the Malaysian context. Using self-report questionnaires, data were collected from 337 nurses employed in a public hospital located near Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Results fully supported the proposed serial multiple mediator model. Trust in supervisor was indirectly related to job engagement via psychological safety followed by felt obligation. This study provides empirical evidence that trust in supervisor makes employees feel psychologically safe to employ and express their selves in their job roles. This satisfaction of the psychological safety need is interpreted by employees as an important socioemotional benefit that, in turn, makes them feel obligated to pay back to their organization through their enhanced level of job engagement. Implications for theory and practice were discussed.

Matched MeSH terms: Trust*
Factors influencing decision-making role preferences: A qualitative study of Malaysian patients with type 2 diabetes during insulin initiation

Lee YK, Low WY, Lee PY, Ng CJ

Int J Nurs Pract, 2015 May;21 Suppl 2:125-31.
PMID: 24804909 DOI: 10.1111/ijn.12355

Patient decision-making role preference (DMRP) is a patient's preferred degree of control when making medical decisions. This descriptive qualitative study aimed to explore Malaysian patients' views on their DMRP. Between January 2011 and March 2012, 22 individual face-to-face in-depth interviews were conducted with patients with type 2 diabetes who were deciding about insulin initiation. The interviews were audio-recorded and analysed using a thematic approach. The age range of participants was 28-67 years old with 11 men. Ten patients preferred to make the decision themselves, six patients indicated that the clinician should make the decision and only one patient expressed a preference for a collaborative role. The following factors influenced DMRP: trust in clinicians, responsibility for diabetes care, level of knowledge and awareness, involvement of family and personal characteristics. In conclusion, the concept of shared decision-making is still alien, and a more participative communication style might help to facilitate patients' expression of DMRP.
Study site: Public university hospital-based primary care clinic, Public health-care clinics (Klinik Kesihatan), Private specialist clinic, Malaysia

Matched MeSH terms: Trust
Fulltext Understanding and reducing the fear of COVID-19

Ng KH, Kemp R

J Zhejiang Univ Sci B, 2020 9 8;21(9):752-754.
PMID: 32893533 DOI: 10.1631/jzus.B2000228

The world is now plagued by a pandemic of unprecedented nature caused by a novel, emerging, and still poorly understood infectious disease, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) (Wu and McGoogan, 2020). In addition to the rapidly growing body of scientific and medical literature that is being published, extensive public reports and stories in both the traditional media and social media have served to generate fear, panic, stigmatization, and instances of xenophobia (Zarocostas, 2020).

Matched MeSH terms: Trust
Fulltext A study on patient's decision-making process in deciding treatment strategies: an illustration of using grounded theory approach

LOW, LEE LAN, TONG, SENG FAH, LOW, WAH YUN

Malaysian Journal of Qualitative Research, 2019;5(1):28-40.
MyJurnal

The learning curve for doing a good qualitative study is steep because qualitative methodologies are often vague and lack explicit steps. We detail the formulation of the grounded theory approach in a study of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus who made decisions while strategizing their treatment types. This undertaking is to demonstrate how this systematic and yet flexible methods contributed to the understanding of the issue we were investigating. The process from deciding on research objectives and research questions, follow with systematic process for data collection and analysis allows us to generate a substantive theoretical model. By paying critical attention to theoretical saturation, grounded theory approach enabled us to construct all possible explanatory concepts related to decision making in strategizing diabetes treatment. We also describe the challenges throughout the whole research journey, including getting permission to interview patients, gaining the trust of research participants and staying open to the participants’ views.

Matched MeSH terms: Trust
Fulltext What Influences the Perceived Trust of a Voice-Enabled Smart Home System: An Empirical Study

Liu Y, Gan Y, Song Y, Liu J

Sensors (Basel), 2021 Mar 13;21(6).
PMID: 33805702 DOI: 10.3390/s21062037

Contemporarily, almost all the global IT giants have aimed at the smart home industry and made an active strategic business layout. As the early-stage and entry-level product of the voice-enabled smart home industry, the smart speakers have been going through rapid development and rising fierce market competition globally in recent years. China, one of the most populous and largest markets in the world, has tremendous business potential in the smart home industry. The market sales of smart speakers in China have gone through rapid growth in the past three years. However, the market penetration rate of related smart home devices and equipment still stays extremely low and far from mass adoption. Moreover, the market sales of smart speakers have also entered a significant slowdown and adjustment period since 2020. Chinese consumers have moved from early impulsive consumption to a rational consumption phase about this early-stage smart home product. Trust in the marketing field is considered an indispensable component of all business transactions, which plays a crucial role in adopting new technologies. This study explores the influencing factors of Chinese users' perceived trust in the voice-enabled smart home systems, uses structural equation modeling (SEM) to analyze the interaction mechanism between different variables, and establishes a perceived trust model through 475 valid samples. The model includes six variables: system quality, familiarity, subjective norm, technology optimism, perceived enjoyment, and perceived trust. The result shows that system quality is the essential influence factor that impacts all other variables and could significantly affect the perceived trust. Perceived enjoyment is the most direct influence variable affected by system quality, subjective norm, and technology optimism, and it positively affects the perceived trust in the end. The subjective norm is one of the most distinguishing variables for Chinese users, since China has a collectivist consumption culture. People always expect their behavior to meet social expectations and standards to avoid criticism and acquire social integration. Therefore, policy guidance, authoritative opinions, and people with important reference roles will significantly affect consumers' perceived trust and purchase intention. Familiarity and technology optimism are important influential factors that will have an indirect impact on the perceived trust. The related results of this study can help designers, practitioners, and researchers of the smart home industry produce products and services with higher perceived trust to improve consumers' adoption and acceptance so that the market penetration rate of related products and enterprises could be increased, and the maturity and development of the voice-enabled smart home industry could be promoted.

Matched MeSH terms: Trust
Fulltext Effects of Robot Facial Characteristics and Gender in Persuasive Human-Robot Interaction

Ghazali AS, Ham J, Barakova EI, Markopoulos P

Front Robot AI, 2018;5:73.
PMID: 33500952 DOI: 10.3389/frobt.2018.00073

The growing interest in social robotics makes it relevant to examine the potential of robots as persuasive agents and, more specifically, to examine how robot characteristics influence the way people experience such interactions and comply with the persuasive attempts by robots. The purpose of this research is to identify how the (ostensible) gender and the facial characteristics of a robot influence the extent to which people trust it and the psychological reactance they experience from its persuasive attempts. This paper reports a laboratory study where SociBot™, a robot capable of displaying different faces and dynamic social cues, delivered persuasive messages to participants while playing a game. In-game choice behavior was logged, and trust and reactance toward the advisor were measured using questionnaires. Results show that a robotic advisor with upturned eyebrows and lips (features that people tend to trust more in humans) is more persuasive, evokes more trust, and less psychological reactance compared to one displaying eyebrows pointing down and lips curled downwards at the edges (facial characteristics typically not trusted in humans). Gender of the robot did not affect trust, but participants experienced higher psychological reactance when interacting with a robot of the opposite gender. Remarkably, mediation analysis showed that liking of the robot fully mediates the influence of facial characteristics on trusting beliefs and psychological reactance. Also, psychological reactance was a strong and reliable predictor of trusting beliefs but not of trusting behavior. These results suggest robots that are intended to influence human behavior should be designed to have facial characteristics we trust in humans and could be personalized to have the same gender as the user. Furthermore, personalization and adaptation techniques designed to make people like the robot more may help ensure they will also trust the robot.

Matched MeSH terms: Trust
Fulltext CONSUMERS’ KNOWLEDGE, PERCEPTION, AND ATTITUDE TOWARDS NUTRITION AND HEALTH CLAIMS ON DAIRY PRODUCTS AND PURCHASE INTENTION IN JOHOR BAHRU

YAP HUI YEE, SITI NUR'AFIFAH JAAFAR

UMT Journal of Undergraduate Research, 2019;1(2):92-102.
MyJurnal

owadays the increasing prevalence of dietary disease has raised consumers’ awareness of healthy diet and lifestyle. The rise in the use of nutrition and health claims to promote health benefits in food products help consumers make effective food choices. There is very limited research regarding nutrition and health claims in Malaysia. This research focused on consumers’ knowledge, perception (i.e. perceived quality, perceived healthiness, perceived value, perceived importance, trust and perceived familiarity), and attitude towards nutrition and health claims on dairy products as well as their purchase intention towards the products, and examinethe relationship between these variables in Johor Bahru, Johor. All responses were collected by distributing questionnaire to convenience and quota sample (n=200). Data was analysed to obtain descriptive statistics and correlation analysis. The results showed that most of the consumers (46%) had moderate knowledge of nutrition and health claims on dairy products. Consumers generally had almost positive perception and attitude towards nutrition and health claims on dairy products and positive purchase intention towards dairy products. Almost all independent variables correlated with purchase intention towards dairy products. Consumer attitude had the strongest positive relationship with purchase intention (r=0.722), followed by moderate positive correlation between consumer perception and purchase intention (r=0.671), while consumer knowledge only had low relationship with purchase intention (r=0.299). This study added new knowledge regarding public purchasing behaviour towards dairy products with nutrition and health claims. This research also provided valuable information for both food manufacturers and companies to help them make effective decisions to improve the presentation of nutrition and health claims for better expression of information as well as the goodness of food products in order to attract the attention of health-conscious consumers.

Matched MeSH terms: Trust
Fulltext What do men want from a health screening mobile app? A qualitative study

Teo CH, Ng CJ, White A

PLoS One, 2017;12(1):e0169435.
PMID: 28060953 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0169435

There is a lack of mobile app which aims to improve health screening uptake developed for men. As part of the study to develop an effective mobile app to increase health screening uptake in men, we conducted a needs assessment to find out what do men want from a health screening mobile app. In-depth interviews and focus group discussions were conducted with 31 men from a banking institution in Kuala Lumpur. The participants were purposely sampled according to their job position, age, ethnicity and screening status. The recruitment was stopped once data saturation was achieved. The audio-recorded interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed using thematic approach. Three themes emerged from the analysis and they were: content, feature and dissemination. In terms of the content, men wanted the app to provide information regarding health screening and functions that can assess their health; which must be personalized to them and are trustable. The app must have user-friendly features in terms of information delivery, ease of use, attention allocation and social connectivity. For dissemination, men proposed that advertisements, recommendations by health professionals, providing incentive and integrating the app as into existing systems may help to increase the dissemination of the app. This study identified important factors that need to be considered when developing a mobile app to improve health screening uptake. Future studies on mobile app development should elicit users' preference and need in terms of its content, features and dissemination strategies to improve the acceptability and the chance of successful implementation.

Matched MeSH terms: Trust
Fulltext Blood biomarkers of Hikikomori, a severe social withdrawal syndrome

Hayakawa K, Kato TA, Watabe M, Teo AR, Horikawa H, Kuwano N, et al.

Sci Rep, 2018 02 13;8(1):2884.
PMID: 29440704 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-21260-w

Hikikomori, a severe form of social withdrawal syndrome, is a growing social issue in Japan and internationally. The pathophysiology of hikikomori has not yet been elucidated and an effective treatment remains to be established. Recently, we revealed that avoidant personality disorder is the most common comorbidity of hikikomori. Thus, we have postulated that avoidant personality is the personality underpinning hikikomori. First, we herein show relationships between avoidant personality traits, blood biomarkers, hikikomori-related psychological features, and behavioural characteristics assessed by a trust game in non-hikikomori volunteers. Avoidant personality traits were negatively associated with high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) and uric acid (UA) in men, and positively associated with fibrin degeneration products (FDP) and high sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP) in women. Next, we recruited actual individuals with hikikomori, and compared avoidant personality traits, blood biomarkers, and psychological features between individuals with hikikomori and age-matched healthy controls. Individuals with hikikomori had higher avoidant personality scores in both sexes, and showed lower serum UA levels in men and lower HDL-C levels in women compared with healthy controls. This is the first report showing possible blood biomarkers for hikikomori, and opens the door to clarify the underlying biological pathophysiology of hikikomori.

Matched MeSH terms: Trust

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