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Fulltext Data set of the challenges and future preference for e-learning of Malaysian business undergraduates during the COVID-19 pandemic

Looi KH

Data Brief, 2021 Oct;38:107450.
PMID: 34692952 DOI: 10.1016/j.dib.2021.107450

This data set contains data on the challenges and future preference for e-learning of Malaysian business undergraduates during the COVID-19 pandemic. The challenges for e-learning include ICT infrastructure, training, support and resources, discipline, advantages, disadvantages and learning outcomes. Data were collected by way of an online survey questionnaire using Google Docs in July 2020 (i.e., during the COVID-19 pandemic). The link to the online questionnaire was distributed via learning management system and email. A total of 251 valid responses were collected. Analyses performed included frequency distribution, mean, standard deviation and correlation. This data set provides valuable insights to understand the contextual challenges and future preference for e-learning of Malaysian business undergraduates during closure of institutions of higher learning. Moreover, upon further analysis, researchers and policy makers may unearth novel relationships among variables included in this data set. Finally, this data set will be useful for researchers and policy makers who want to conduct comparative studies or meta analyses on the challenges and future preference for e-learning of business undergraduates during the COVID-19 pandemic to design future crises response plan.
Fulltext Explicating gender disparity in wearing face masks during the COVID-19 pandemic

Looi KH

BMC Public Health, 2022 Dec 05;22(1):2273.
PMID: 36471303 DOI: 10.1186/s12889-022-14630-7

BACKGROUND: The available evidence suggests that women were more likely to wear face masks as a precaution during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, few studies have explicated this gender disparity in wearing face masks. This study investigates associations of demographic factors with wearing face masks in Malaysia during the COVID-19 pandemic, then explicates gender disparity in wearing face masks from the lens of the Protection Motivation Theory.
METHODS: The first part of this study employed a structured online survey of 708 Malaysian adult participants. Data collected were quantitatively analyzed by means of descriptive statistics, bivariate correlations, analysis of variance (ANOVA), and multiple linear regression. The second part of this study was conducted among 28 women to better understand gender disparity in protection motivations from the perspectives of women.
RESULTS: Gender has the strongest positive association with wearing face masks (p-value < .001), followed by age (p-value = .028). The Protection Motivation Theory adequately explicated the gender disparity in wearing face masks. Additionally, women were motivated to wear face masks beyond protection from the SARS-CoV-2.
CONCLUSION: Understanding the underlying motivations for wearing face masks informs design of gender-based public health messages to increase compliance with public health regulations and reduce morbidity and mortality for present and future public health crises.
Correlations of demographic factors and hygiene factors with face mask wearing during the COVID-19 pandemic and suggestion for future research: A cross-sectional study of adults in Malaysia

Looi KH

J Public Health Res, 2023 Jul;12(3):22799036231197192.
PMID: 37693740 DOI: 10.1177/22799036231197192

BACKGROUND: Despite the many touted benefits of community-wide face mask wearing, numerous communication campaigns and mandates, some people still refuse or fail to wear face masks in public settings. Hence, exposing themselves and others to the risk of infection by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 and raise the potential for public healthcare systems to become overwhelmed once again. This study investigates demographic and hygiene factors related to propensity of face mask wearing in public settings.
DESIGN AND METHODS: The self-administered online questionnaire contained the independent variables (demographic and hygiene factors) and the outcome variable (frequency of face mask wearing). Participants were recruited through convenience and snowball sampling techniques. Seven hundred and eight responses were collected from Malaysian adults between May and June 2020. The demographic characteristics of participants, differences in the frequency of face mask wearing across demographic factors and hierarchical multiple regression were analyzed.
RESULTS: The propensity of face mask wearing differs by gender. The hierarchical multiple regression revealed that being female, having personal protective equipment available and frequently washing hands were positively correlated with the frequency of face mask wearing. Moreover, the availability of personal protective equipment and the frequency of hand washing accounted for greater variation of the frequency of face mask wearing than gender.
CONCLUSION: Future studies should adopt established psychosocial models in conjunction with normative and cultural factors for a better understanding of underlying motivations to engage in preventive health behaviors to shape improved hygienic and societal precautionary protective behaviors in different contexts.
Fulltext Perception of Health Conditions and Test Availability as Predictors of Adults' Mental Health during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Survey Study of Adults in Malaysia

Dai H, Zhang SX, Looi KH, Su R, Li J

Int J Environ Res Public Health, 2020 07 30;17(15).
PMID: 32751459 DOI: 10.3390/ijerph17155498

Research identifying adults' mental health during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic relies solely on demographic predictors without examining adults' health condition as a potential predictor. This study aims to examine individuals' perception of health conditions and test availability as potential predictors of mental health-insomnia, anxiety, depression, and distress-during the COVID-19 pandemic. An online survey of 669 adults in Malaysia was conducted during 2-8 May 2020, six weeks after the Movement Control Order (MCO) was issued. We found adults' perception of health conditions had curvilinear relationships (horizontally reversed J-shaped) with insomnia, anxiety, depression, and distress. Perceived test availability for COVID-19 also had curvilinear relationships (horizontally reversed J-shaped) with anxiety and depression. Younger adults reported worse mental health, but people from various religions and ethnic groups did not differ significantly in reported mental health. The results indicated that adults with worse health conditions had more mental health problems, and the worse degree deepened for unhealthy people. Perceived test availability negatively predicted anxiety and depression, especially for adults perceiving COVID-19 test unavailability. The significant predictions of perceived health condition and perceived COVID-19 test availability suggest a new direction for the literature to identify the psychiatric risk factors directly from health-related variables during a pandemic.
Fulltext Individual-Level Heterogeneity in Mask Wearing during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Malaysia

Zhang SX, Looi KH, Li N, Wan X, Li J

Am J Trop Med Hyg, 2021 Aug 09;105(6):1516-1518.
PMID: 34370702 DOI: 10.4269/ajtmh.21-0566

Wearing a face mask has been a key approach to contain or slow down the spread of COVID-19 in the ongoing pandemic. However, there is huge heterogeneity among individuals in their willingness to wear face masks during an epidemic. This research aims to investigate the individual heterogeneity to wear face masks and its associated predictors during the COVID-19 pandemic when mask-wearing was not mandatory. Based on a survey of 708 Malaysian adults and a multivariate least-squares fitting analysis, the results reveal a significant variance among individuals in wearing masks, as 34% of the individual adults did not always wear masks in public places. Female individuals, individuals who wash their hands more frequently, and those who reported more availability of personal protective equipment were more likely to practice mask-wearing. The identification of less-compliant groups of mask wearing has critical implications by enabling more specific health communication campaigns.
Fulltext Social media use as a predictor of handwashing during a pandemic: evidence from COVID-19 in Malaysia

Zhang SX, Graf-Vlachy L, Looi KH, Su R, Li J

Epidemiol Infect, 2020 10 23;148:e261.
PMID: 33092675 DOI: 10.1017/S0950268820002575

Although handwashing is an effective way to prevent infections, there is scarce evidence on predictors of handwashing during a pandemic. This paper aims to identify behavioural and demographic predictors of handwashing. The study surveyed 674 adults in Malaysia in May 2020 regarding whether the time spent on social media predicted handwashing contingent on gender and number of children. More time spent on social media was positively associated with handwashing for males with three or more children. However, for males without children, social media use was negatively associated with handwashing. The association was not significant for males with one or two children. For females, more time spent on social media was significantly linked to more handwashing only for females with one child. Gender, a traditional predictor of handwashing, was a useful predictor only for those who spent more than three hours per day on social media and had at most one child. Number of children was a novel negative predictor for males who did not use social media and who averaged one hour per day on social media, a positive predictor for males who spent lots of time on social media, but not a predictor for females. In sum, social media use predicts handwashing, and is thus a helpful variable for use in targeted health communication during a pandemic - particularly through social media. Further, more conventional predictors like gender and number of children exhibit contingency effects with social media use.