COVID-19 Risk Perception and Prevention Practices among High- and Low-Density Populations in Bangladesh: A Mixed-Methods Study
, Kamal Ibne Amin Chowdhury 1,†, Refah Tamanna 1, Zarin Abdullah 1, S. M. Zafor Shafique 1, Md Saiful Islam 1,2, Nadia Ali Rimi 1, Muhammad Rashedul Alam 1, Arifa Nazneen 1, Mustafizur Rahman 1, Taufiqur Rahman Bhuiyan 1, Farzana Islam Khan 3, Mahbubur Rahman 3, A. S. M. Alamgir 3, Tahmina Shirin 3, Mahmudur Rahman 3,4, Firdausi Qadri 1, Meerjady Sabrina Flora 3 and Sayera Banu 1
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
This is an interesting study that discussed the impact of COVID-19. However, the relationship between social-media usage and COVID-19 is overlooked.
During the COVID, individuals relied on social-media messages, especially for the messages shared by social-media influencers, to obtain product-related information. That is, individuals change their behaviors, and increasingly rely on social-media influencers. In this regard, the importance of social-media messages should be discussed, or being mentioned in the limitation of this study.
The following studies are important, and the authors are recommended to cite these studies:
Cheung, M. L., Leung, W. K., Aw, E. C. X., & Koay, K. Y. (2022). “I follow what you post!”: The role of social media influencers’ content characteristics in consumers' online brand-related activities (COBRAs). Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 66, 102940.
Buzeta, C., De Pelsmacker, P., & Dens, N. (2020). Motivations to use different social media types and their impact on consumers' online brand-related activities (COBRAs). Journal of Interactive Marketing, 52, 79-98.
Piehler, R., Schade, M., Kleine-Kalmer, B., & Burmann, C. (2019). Consumers’ online brand-related activities (COBRAs) on SNS brand pages: An investigation of consuming, contributing and creating behaviours of SNS brand page followers. European Journal of Marketing.
I expect to read the amended paper again.
Author Response
Dear Sir:
Greetings!
Thank you for your review and for sharing valuable comments.
Please, see the attachment. We provide point-by-point responses to the reviewer’s comments.
Sincerely,
Dr. Satter
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
The research addressed an important, relevant topic in today’s public health. My comments can be found below to help the authors improve their data analytics and strengthen/clarify the presentation of their research.
1. What is the participation rate of the survey?
2. In the first paragraph in the results section, percentages should be included following the reporting of the frequencies.
3. Table 3 confused me: at the beginning of the manuscript, the authors suggested that high density living area = slum and low density living area = non-slum. However, in Table 3, a large number of low and lower middle SES households lived in low density areas. The authors may want to remove the mentioning of the words “slum” or “non-slum” associated with density.
4. The authors’ sample size is fairly large—N > 600, so why didn’t the authors use multivariate analysis? A regression model controlling for the possible confounding variables may provide much more convincing evidence to the authors’ findings. The current data analyses were descriptive and there was not even any bivariate association. I don’t think this is appropriate for a study with such a large sample size and a focus on “predicting” public health related outcomes.
5. The authors may want to provide a descriptive table summarizing the basic demographic profile of the qualitative interviewees.
6. The discussion of religion is very interesting. The authors may refer to the following studies on religious coping.
Pargament, K. I., Ensing, D. S., Falgout, K., Olsen, H., Reilly, B., Haitsma, K. V., & Warren, R. (1990). God help me (I): Religious coping efforts as predictors of the outcomes to significant negative life events. American Journal of Community Psychology, 18(6), 793–824. https:// doi. org/ 10. 1007/BF009 38065
Pargament, K. I., Feuille, M., & Burdzy, D. (2011). The brief RCOPE: Current psychometric status of a short measure of religious coping. Religions, 2, 51–76. https:// doi. org/ 10. 3390/ rel20 10051
However, what is the focus of this research project? How is religion connected to the main focus, such as low vs. high density living, in this study? It somehow feels a little bit random for the authors to mention the possible influences from religiosity in their study. Finally, the survey respondents’ religious affiliation should probably be included in one of the previous tables to contrast low density area residents with those from high density areas.
7. “The perception that COVID-19 was a punishment from God affected the study participants’ compliance with the national recommendations for infection prevention and control.” This is not appropriate as your sample is small (N<20) and the data is not longitudinal from which no causal inference can be made.
Author Response
Dear Sir:
Greetings!
Please see the attachment.
Regards,
Dr. Satter
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 3 Report
The paper is OK to be read and can be valuable resource to the readers.
Line 9: 1st institution in the authors identification in not correct: "icddr,b"? Correct it, please.
Some other minor checks are required, read the whole text again, please.
Author Response
Dear Sir:
Greetings!
Thank you for your review and for sharing valuable comments.
Please see the attachment
Sincerely,
Dr. Satter
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
The authors haven't addressed the comments given in the first round. As mentioned, social-media communication was important during COVID. Hence, the authors are recommended to read and cite the recommended studies in the limitation section of the study.
Cheung, M. L., Leung, W. K., Aw, E. C. X., & Koay, K. Y. (2022). “I follow what you post!”: The role of social media influencers’ content characteristics in consumers' online brand-related activities (COBRAs). Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 66, 102940.
Buzeta, C., De Pelsmacker, P., & Dens, N. (2020). Motivations to use different social media types and their impact on consumers' online brand-related activities (COBRAs). Journal of Interactive Marketing, 52, 79-98.
Piehler, R., Schade, M., Kleine-Kalmer, B., & Burmann, C. (2019). Consumers’ online brandrelated activities (COBRAs) on SNS brand pages: An investigation of consuming, contributing and creating behaviours of SNS brand page followers. European Journal of Marketing.
