COVID-19 Surveillance in the Primary Health Care Population of Qatar: Experience of Prioritizing Timeliness Over Representativeness When Sampling the Population

A, Hamda Abdulla; Qotba,; Nuaimi, Ahmed Sameer Al; Mujalli, Hanan Al; Zainel, Abduljaleel Abdullatif; Khudadad, Hanan; Marji, Tamara; Veettil, Shajitha Thekke; Syed, Mohamed Ahmed

doi:10.3389/fpubh.2021.654734

Cited by 5 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…The results of another recently published study showed that the two different sampling methods had a significant impact on the reporting of COVID-19 symptoms leading to different frequencies (symptomatic subjects: 28.2% in open invitation group and 16.2% in random sample), which was in line with our results. Moreover, the overall prevalence rate of active COVID-19 cases within the open invitation sample (13.3%) was almost twice as big as that found in the random sample (6.9%) [ 19 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of Two Different Recruitment Procedures (Random vs. Volunteer Selection) on the Results of Seroepidemiological Study (SARS-CoV-2)

Gajda

Kowalska

Zejda

2021

IJERPH

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The proper recruitment of subjects for population-based epidemiological studies is critical to the external validity of the studies and, above all, to the sound and correct interpretation of the findings. Since 2020, the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has been a new factor that has been, additionally, hindering studies. Therefore, the aim of our study is to compare demographic, socio-economic, health-related characteristics and the frequency of SARS-CoV-2 infection occurrence among the randomly selected group and the group composed of volunteers. We compare two groups of participants from the cross-sectional study assessing the seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, which was conducted in autumn 2020, in three cities of the Silesian Voivodeship in Poland. The first group consisted of a randomly selected, nationally representative, age-stratified sample of subjects (1167 participants, “RG” group) and was recruited using personal invitation letters and postal addresses obtained from a national registry. The second group (4321 volunteers, “VG” group) included those who expressed their willingness to participate in response to an advertisement published in the media. Compared with RG subjects, volunteers were more often females, younger and professionally active, more often had a history of contact with a COVID-19 patient, post-contact nasopharyngeal swab, fewer comorbidities, as well as declared the occurrence of symptoms that might suggest infection with SARS-CoV-2. Additionally, in the VG group the percentage of positive IgG results and tuberculosis vaccination were higher. The findings of the study confirm that surveys limited to volunteers are biased. The presence of the bias may seriously affect and distort inference and make the generalizability of the results more than questionable. Although effective control over selection bias in surveys, including volunteers, is virtually impossible, its impact on the survey results is impossible to predict. However, whenever possible, such surveys could include a small component of a random sample to assess the presence and potential effects of selection bias.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of Two Different Recruitment Procedures (Random vs. Volunteer Selection) on the Results of Seroepidemiological Study (SARS-CoV-2)

Gajda

Kowalska

Zejda

2021

IJERPH

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“…A cross sectional study was conducted from January to February 2021. Although random samples produce more informative and less biased results than convenient ones, COVID-19 may call for desperate actions and serves as an excuse for using less stringent criteria in choosing survey samples (7) . Therefore, a non-probability convenience sampling technique was used to recruit Malaysian university students in this study.…”

Section: Study Design and Sampling Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Knowledge, Attitudes, Practices, and Online Distance Learning Experience of Malaysian University Students towards COVID-19: A Cross Sectional Study(Conference Paper )#

Mikhael¹,

Ong²

2023

IJPS

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Some new norms need to be adapted due to COVID-19 pandemic period where people need to wear masks, wash their hands frequently, maintain social distancing, and avoid going out unless necessary. Therefore, educational institutions were closed to minimize the spread of COVID-19. As a result of this, online education was adapted to substitute face-to-face learning. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the Malaysian university students’ adaptation to the new norms, knowledge and practices toward COVID-19, besides, their attitudes toward online learning. A convenient sampling technique was used to recruit 500 Malaysian university students from January to February 2021 through social media. For data collection, all students were asked to fill in a questionnaire that was developed based on previous literature, using Google Forms. 498 students completed the questionnaire (response rate 99.6%). Malaysian Ministry of Health was the main source (83.73%) that students refer to when looking for information on COVID-19. Only 40% of the participants had good overall knowledge about COVID-19; such knowledge was influenced by the students' field of study. The current practice towards COVID-19 was good only by 26.1% of participating students; such practice was influenced by the ethnic groups. Additionally, 60% of participated students agreed that COVID-19 can be successfully controlled. About one-third of participants had positive attitudes toward online learning. The major challenges facing students during online learning include distraction of the learning environment (80%), unstable internet connectivity (75%), lack of motivation (70%), limited technical skills (41%), and limited broadband data (34%). In conclusion, the knowledge and practice toward COVID-19 was good in less than half of Malaysian university students. Attitudes to the controlling of COVID-19 were positive, while the attitudes toward online learning were neutral among most of the Malaysian university students. Challenges toward online learning are diverse and include both technical and student-related problems.

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“…In order to protect the target respondents from the threat of COVID-19, a less severe criterion was used. According to Kelly [24] and A/Qotba et al [25] , they state that the COVID-19 pandemic may "serve as an excuse for using less stringent criteria in choosing samples without assessing the extent of bias introduced during the survey process". Data collection was done in two ways because the study took place during a lockdown caused by the rising number of COVID-19 cases: online and offline using a social support instrument that was adapted from Malecki, Demaray, and Elliott, as mentioned by Pappas [20] and a 13-item Learning Anxiety Questionnaire adopted from Kara [26] .…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Amidst the home-based instruction: The perceived social support and the learning anxiety of secondary school students

Abirin¹

2023

Environ Soc Psychol

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The primary purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between the extent of the social support provided by parents and teachers among secondary school students during their home-based instruction and the learning anxiety they experience amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Social support was measured based on two constructs: parents and teachers. A descriptive-survey approach utilizing a proportional stratified random sampling was utilized to obtain the samples from a 75,542 total population of secondary students enrolled in school year 2020–2021. Data gathering was carried out during lockdown thus, printed and online surveys were administered. Three problems were investigated in the study: (1) the extent of the social support received by secondary school students from their parents and teachers; (2) the level of learning anxiety they experienced during home-based instruction; (3) whether there is a significant relationship between social support and the learning anxiety of secondary school students. Based on the findings obtained, teachers provided higher support to secondary school students as compared with parents; the learning anxiety experienced by the secondary school students during home-based instruction was moderate; and this study concluded that there is a strong positive relationship between social support and learning anxiety, however, this relationship is not significant.

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COVID-19 Surveillance in the Primary Health Care Population of Qatar: Experience of Prioritizing Timeliness Over Representativeness When Sampling the Population

Cited by 5 publications

References 11 publications

Impact of Two Different Recruitment Procedures (Random vs. Volunteer Selection) on the Results of Seroepidemiological Study (SARS-CoV-2)

Impact of Two Different Recruitment Procedures (Random vs. Volunteer Selection) on the Results of Seroepidemiological Study (SARS-CoV-2)

Knowledge, Attitudes, Practices, and Online Distance Learning Experience of Malaysian University Students towards COVID-19: A Cross Sectional Study(Conference Paper )#

Amidst the home-based instruction: The perceived social support and the learning anxiety of secondary school students

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