Perception of COVID-19 Testing in the Entire Population

Abstract

In the Slovak Republic, a mass testing of the entire population was performed. Estimates show that this testing cost more than 400 million EUR and thousands of euros were paid for one positively identified case. Thus, it is possible to state a high cost for such a project, which has been criticized by many parties. On the other hand, from a public health point of view, mass testing has helped fight the pandemic. Both the health and economic perspectives are important in assessing the success of a pandemic strategy, but the social perspective is equally important. In fact, the situation is perceived from the position of public leaders who make decisions, but also from the position of the society that bears individual political decisions. It is not appropriate to forget about the society that is most affected by restrictions, testing, health status, but also the burden on the state budget. The objective of the presented research was to examine the perception of testing for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in the Slovak population. Non-parametric difference tests and correspondence analysis were used for statistical processing. The research sample consisted of 806 respondents and data collection took place in February 2021. The main findings include significant differences in perceptions between the first and the last participation in testing in terms of gender, age, testing experience, and time aspect. The last participation in testing showed lower rates of positive aspects related to the internal motivation to test compared to the first participation. In contrast, external stimulation by government regulations related to restrictions in the absence of a negative result was higher in the last participation in testing. There were also differences between the first and the last test in the level of doubts about the accuracy of the test result, while a higher level was found at the last testing participation. It can be concluded that the frequency of testing and its requirements need to be approached very carefully over time, as it is likely that the positive perceptions may deteriorate. The recommendations include clear and timely government communication, trust building and health education.

Depression, anxiety, and burnout in academia: topic modeling of PubMed abstracts

“…A wider acceptance of internet-based therapy was discussed in literature: Svärdman et al (2022) conducted a meta-analysis showing effectiveness of internet-delivered cognitive behavioral interventions. The increase in internet addiction was also detected in recent years, and its links to anxiety and depression were explored (Servidio et al, 2021;Gavurova et al, 2022).…”

“…However, it should be emphasized that psychometric instrument validation is the basis for methodologically rigorous research and thus needs to receive sufficient attention in the area of mental health. As it was shown that internet-related problems intertwined with depression and anxiety have become more prevalent in recent years (Servidio et al, 2021;Gavurova et al, 2022), the author also focused on topic 20 ("internet addiction"). Its relationships with other topics are elucidated with the dendrogram in Figure 5, where this topic clusters at a later stage with topics related to substance abuse, sleep problems, etc.…”

Design and implementation of a New Blockchain-based digital health passport: A Moroccan case study

“…The COVID-19 pandemic [ 1 ], which paralyzed global healthcare systems via exceptional lockdowns and physical separation, has prompted the development of such digital technologies to serve a variety of healthcare needs throughout the world [ [2] , [3] , [4] ]. The set of digital technology developments has favored the coordination of large-scale operations like prediction and early diagnosis [ [5] , [6] , [7] , [8] , [9] , [10] ], population-level mass screening [ 11 , 12 ], quick contact tracing [ 13 , 14 ], vaccination and pharmaceutical supply chain management [ 15 ], telemedicine consultations [ 16 ], digital training [ 17 ] and e-commerce expansion [ 18 ]. Otherwise, digital technologies such as machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL) has proved its efficiency in many computer-aided diagnosis systems for different disease [ [19] , [20] , [21] , [22] , [23] , [24] , [25] , [26] ].…”