Building community resilience beyond COVID-19: The Singapore way

Yip, Wanfen; Ge, Lixia; Ho, Andy Hau Yan; Heng, Bee Hoon; Tan, Woan Shin

doi:10.1016/j.lanwpc.2020.100091

Cited by 64 publications

(67 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…With lower health literacy, patients lack the ability to understand the seriousness of the pandemic and the preventive measurements needed to take to prevent contracting the disease. In Singapore’s context, the high rate of COVID-19 awareness could be attributed to the effective dissemination of COVID-19 related information and knowledge in Singapore during the early phase of pandemic 25 . While most people are acting in a socially responsible way, there is still a small percentage of people ignoring preventive measurements and protective behaviour due to the lack of knowledge and awareness towards COVID-19 26 .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

COVID-19 awareness, knowledge and perception towards digital health in an urban multi-ethnic Asian population

Teo

Chee

Koh

et al. 2021

Sci Rep

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This study aimed to determine COVID-19-related awareness, knowledge, impact and preparedness among elderly Asians; and to evaluate their acceptance towards digital health services amidst the pandemic. 523 participants (177 Malays, 171 Indians, 175 Chinese) were recruited and underwent standardised phone interview during Singapore’s lockdown period (07 April till 01 June 2020). Multivariable logistic regression models were performed to evaluate the associations between demographic, socio-economic, lifestyle, and systemic factors, with COVID-19 awareness, knowledge, preparedness, well-being and digital health service acceptance. The average perception score on the seriousness of COVID-19 was 7.6 ± 2.4 (out of 10). 75.5% of participants were aware that COVID-19 carriers can be asymptomatic. Nearly all (≥ 90%) were aware of major prevention methods for COVID-19 (i.e. wearing of mask, social distancing). 66.2% felt prepared for the pandemic, and 86.8% felt confident with government’s handling and measures. 78.4% felt their daily routine was impacted. 98.1% reported no prior experience in using digital health services, but 52.2% felt these services would be helpful to reduce non-essential contact. 77.8% were uncomfortable with artificial intelligence software interpreting their medical results. In multivariable analyses, Chinese participants felt less prepared, and more likely felt impacted by COVID-19. Older and lower income participants were less likely to use digital health services. In conclusion, we observed a high level of awareness and knowledge on COVID-19. However, acceptance towards digital health service was low. These findings are valuable for examining the effectiveness of COVID-19 communication in Singapore, and the remaining gaps in digital health adoption among elderly.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

COVID-19 awareness, knowledge and perception towards digital health in an urban multi-ethnic Asian population

Teo

Chee

Koh

et al. 2021

Sci Rep

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“…The Philippines can learn from the strategies employed by the education sector of its ASEAN neighbors. For instance, students and teachers were provided financial support to obtain computing devices and dongles for internet connectivity in Singapore (Yip et al, 2021), and use of broadcast media and low-bandwidth communication apps were promoted in Thailand and Vietnam (Chang & Yano, 2020). Through their Ministries of Education, the governments of Brunei Darussalam and Indonesia have forged partnerships with telecommunication companies to provide consistent Internet connectivity, free access to online learning management systems and platforms, and subsidized rates for students and teachers (Gupta & Khairina, 2020;Shahrill et al, 2021).…”

Section: Conclusion and Recommendationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Demographic, gadget and internet profiles as determinants of disease and consequence related COVID-19 anxiety among Filipino college students

Cleofas

Rocha

2021

Educ Inf Technol

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In the context of the nationwide shift to online learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic and its possible effect on mental health, this study investigated the relationship between demographic, gadget and Internet profiles, and disease and consequence related COVID-19 anxiety among Filipino college students. This is a quantitative cross-sectional study. A total of 952 students participated in the online survey. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to draw insights from the data. Findings suggest that majority of the student respondents had high levels of disease and consequence related COVID-19 anxiety. Students from poorer households, who do not own laptops and desktop computers, and those with limited Internet connection exhibited higher levels of disease-related COVID-19 anxiety. Younger, poorer, female students who were enrolled in lower year levels, do not own laptops or tablets, and have limited or borrowed Internet connectivity demonstrated higher levels of consequence-related COVID-19 anxiety.

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“…Third, rural communities have been observed to behave distinctively in times of natural disaster by expressing greater social control, thereby ensuring compliance with lockdown [19]. We acknowledge, however, that population density cannot be the only explanation [9,10] and recognise the possibility that density may merely be a proxy for other social determinants [4][5][6]8] If we accept that we are unlikely to abolish risk completely, then we believe it should be possible to relax restrictions earlier in those regions of the UK with lower virus activity when it is judged that the risks of lockdown [20,21] outweigh risks of the virus, when there is a test, trace and isolate system in place and particularly now that a vaccination programme is well underway. Whilst Reproductive Number (R 0 ) remains the gold standard for measuring the spread of an epidemic, in practice it is based on a number of assumptions and is complex to calculate.…”

Section: Plos Onementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Evidence thus far supports an association between population density and virus activity though it is not yet clear from the literature whether density per se is key or whether density is merely a proxy for more important social determinants [3][4][5][6][7][8]. It is also evident that the concentration of people within a densely populated area does not necessarily lead to high infection rates if cities adopt robust social distancing, mask wearing and contact tracing measures [9,10].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Regional variation in COVID-19 positive hospitalisation across Scotland during the first wave of the pandemic and its relation to population density: A cross-sectional observation study

2021

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Background There have been large regional differences in COVID-19 virus activity across the UK with many commentators suggesting that these are related to age, ethnicity and social class. There has also been a focus on cases, hospitalisations and deaths rather than on hospitalisation rates expressed per 100,000 population. The purpose of our study was to examine regional variation in COVID-19 positive hospitalisation rates in Scotland during the first wave of the pandemic and the possibility that these might be related to population density. Methods and findings This was a repeated point prevalence study. The number of COVID-19 positive patients hospitalised in the eleven Scottish mainland health boards peaked at 1517 on 19th April, then fell to a low of 243 on 16th August before rising slightly to 262 on 15th September. In July, August and September only four boards had more than 5 hospitalised patients. There was a statistically significant relationship between hospitalisation rates and population density on 97.7% of individual days during the first wave of the pandemic (Pearson’s r 0.62–0.93, with 123 of a possible 174 days having p values <0.001). Multiple linear regression analyses performed on data from the 11 mainland boards across six time points suggest that population density accounted for 70.2% of the variation in hospitalisation rate in April, 72.3% in May, 81.2% in June, 91.0% in July, 91.0% in August, and 88.1% in September. Neither population median age nor median social deprivation score at health board level were statistically significant in the final model for hospitalisation. Conclusion There were large differences in crude COVID-19 hospitalisation rates across the 11 mainland Scottish health boards, that were significantly related to population density. Given that lockdown was originally introduced to prevent the NHS from being overwhelmed, we believe our results support a regional rather than a national approach to lifting or reimposing more restrictive measures, and that hospitalisation rates should be part of the decision making process.

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Building community resilience beyond COVID-19: The Singapore way

Cited by 64 publications

References 17 publications

COVID-19 awareness, knowledge and perception towards digital health in an urban multi-ethnic Asian population

COVID-19 awareness, knowledge and perception towards digital health in an urban multi-ethnic Asian population

Demographic, gadget and internet profiles as determinants of disease and consequence related COVID-19 anxiety among Filipino college students

Regional variation in COVID-19 positive hospitalisation across Scotland during the first wave of the pandemic and its relation to population density: A cross-sectional observation study

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