The immediate psychological response of the general population in Saudi Arabia during COVID-19 pandemic: A cross-sectional study

  1. Royes Joseph
  2. Jisha M. Lucca
  3. Dhfer Alshayban
  4. Yasir A. Alshehry

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Abstract

No abstract available

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  1. Version published to 10.1016/j.jiph.2020.11.017
  2. Version published to 10.1101/2020.06.19.20135533v2 on medRxiv
  3. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2020.06.19.20135533: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    Institutional Review Board StatementConsent: Participation in the study was voluntary, and the participants were requested to provide their consent and continue with the questionnaire items by selecting a checkbox.
    IRB: The study was approved by the Institutional Review Board (IRB approval number: IRB-2020-05-173).
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    Software and Algorithms
    SentencesResources
    The online questionnaire was created using the QuestionPro tool and circulated through emails and social media platforms.
    QuestionPro
    suggested: None

    Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).

    Results from LimitationRecognizer: We detected the following sentences addressing limitations in the study:
    This study has several limitations. Firstly, the study had a limited sample size. Though the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia comprises 13 administrative regions but classified these regions into five geographical regions due to limited sample size, especially from the Northern or Southern regions. During the initial stage, the disease outbreak was substantial in the Western, Eastern, and Central regions, but not in the Northern or Southern regions. Secondly, the screening was done using self-administered questionnaires through an online tool, but on two languages. Therefore, the responders may provide data that meet the social expectation rather than reality, and the clinical significance may be unpredictable. Another potential limitation may be the oversampling of a particular network of similar groups, which may lead to selection bias. Further, the study did not exploit the psychological responses of COVID-19 patients or survivors as such as the primary focus of the study was the general public. Finally, but importantly, the study used ultra-brief questionnaires for the screening for anxiety, depression, and distress. However, the questionnaires are proven to be used for the initial screening of a large number of individuals (Kroenke et al., 2009; Thoresen et al., 2010; Löwe et al., 2010; Giorgi et al., 2015).

    Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.

    Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.

    Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.

    Results from rtransparent:
    • Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

    About SciScore

    SciScore is an automated tool that is designed to assist expert reviewers by finding and presenting formulaic information scattered throughout a paper in a standard, easy to digest format. SciScore checks for the presence and correctness of RRIDs (research resource identifiers), and for rigor criteria such as sex and investigator blinding. For details on the theoretical underpinning of rigor criteria and the tools shown here, including references cited, please follow this link.

  4. Version published to 10.1101/2020.06.19.20135533v1 on medRxiv