Confidence in government and rumors amongst international migrant workers involved in dormitory outbreaks of COVID-19: A cross-sectional survey
This article has been Reviewed by the following groups
Listed in
- Evaluated articles (ScreenIT)
Abstract
Background
In the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, confidence in the government and access to accurate information have been critical to the control of outbreaks. Although outbreaks have emerged amongst communities of international migrant workers worldwide, little is known about how they perceive the government’s response or their exposure to rumors.
Methods
Between 22 June to 11 October 2020, we surveyed 1011 low-waged migrant workers involved in dormitory outbreaks within Singapore. Participants reported their confidence in the government; whether they had heard, shared, or believed widely-disseminated COVID-19 rumors; and their socio-demographics. Logistic regression models were fitted to identify factors associated with confidence and rumor exposure.
Results
1 in 2 participants (54.2%, 95% CI: 51.1-57.3%) reported that they believed at least one COVID-19 rumor. This incidence was higher than that observed in the general population for the host country (Singapore). Nonetheless, most participants (90.0%, 95% CI: 87.6-91.5%) reported being confident that the government could control the spread of COVID-19. Age was significantly associated with belief in rumors, while educational level was associated with confidence in government.
Conclusions
Our findings suggest that language and cultural differences may limit the access that migrant workers have to official COVID-19 updates. Correspondingly, public health agencies should use targeted messaging strategies to promote health knowledge within migrant worker communities.
Article activity feed
-
SciScore for 10.1101/2021.07.08.21260237: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Ethics Consent: All participants provided informed consent in accordance with a protocol approved by the Institutional Review Boards of the National University of Singapore and Singapore Health Services
IRB: All participants provided informed consent in accordance with a protocol approved by the Institutional Review Boards of the National University of Singapore and Singapore Health ServicesSex as a biological variable Respondents were male migrants employed in manual labour jobs, and were included if they met the following eligibility criteria: aged 21 and above, and holding a government-issued permit indicating their employment status. Randomization not detected. Blinding not detected. Power Analysis no… SciScore for 10.1101/2021.07.08.21260237: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Ethics Consent: All participants provided informed consent in accordance with a protocol approved by the Institutional Review Boards of the National University of Singapore and Singapore Health Services
IRB: All participants provided informed consent in accordance with a protocol approved by the Institutional Review Boards of the National University of Singapore and Singapore Health ServicesSex as a biological variable Respondents were male migrants employed in manual labour jobs, and were included if they met the following eligibility criteria: aged 21 and above, and holding a government-issued permit indicating their employment status. Randomization not detected. Blinding not detected. Power Analysis not detected. Table 2: Resources
Software and Algorithms Sentences Resources Analyses were conducted using SPSS Version 20 and R Version 4.0.3. SPSSsuggested: (SPSS, RRID:SCR_002865)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:In reporting these findings, we note several limitations. First, we only captured migrant workers’ responses at one time-point. As the COVID-19 situation is fluid, more studies are needed to understand how changing circumstances (e.g., the emergence of new variants, vaccination programs) influence responses. Second, our survey used self-reported measures. These measures may be subject to recollection biases or social pressures (e.g., fear of repercussions within a host country), and follow-up research can consider alternate data sources (e.g., mining social media posts).
Results from TrialIdentifier: We found the following clinical trial numbers in your paper:
Identifier Status Title NCT04718519 Completed Migrant Workers' Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic Results from Barzooka: We found bar graphs of continuous data. We recommend replacing bar graphs with more informative graphics, as many different datasets can lead to the same bar graph. The actual data may suggest different conclusions from the summary statistics. For more information, please see Weissgerber et al (2015).
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.
Results from scite Reference Check: We found no unreliable references.
-
-