*3.2. Survey-Based Data Compilation*

A questionnaire was designed and shared with the health counselors and advisors (from the National Institute of Health), medical practitioners (from Shifa International Hospital, Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, and Aga Khan University Hospital), professors, and associate professors (from Quaid-i-Azam University, King Edward College, and Forman Christian College University) from the fields of Sociology, Medicine, and Psychology to obtain their expert feedback for pre-examination purposes. These expert participants played a dual role in the assessment of the questionnaire. Firstly, they commented on the contents of the questions to improve their clarity and quality. It established the content validity of the questionnaire. Secondly, they filled in the questionnaire for pilot testing to verify the functionality of the questionnaire. It established the face validity of the questionnaire [95]. The profiles of the participatory role-playing individuals are given in Appendix A (Table A1).

A questionnaire in English was combined with Urdu translation format removing any language barriers and producing informed feedback. This online survey was conducted in Pakistan during May–June 2020. In the face of the ongoing pandemic outbreak, the questionnaire was floated in numerous Facebook (Facebook Inc., Menlo Park, CA, USA) and WhatsApp (WhatsApp Inc., Menlo Park, CA, USA) groups among the social circles of friends, friends' friends, colleagues, colleagues' friends, and scholars and students from universities across universities. Ethical considerations were included by stating the research aims and scope in the questionnaire's introductory paragraph to ensure the respondents' informed consent. Furthermore, the confidentiality and anonymity of respondents were also guaranteed during the questionnaire conduction. Following Kamenidou et al. [96], the questionnaire conduction process was based on mixed non-probability sampling, which involved convenience, snowball, and criteria sampling procedures. The recruitment criterion was mainly based on the age of the respondents. Respondents below 18 years of age were advised not to fill in the questionnaire. Also, the individuals reluctant to provide their consent were excluded. (i.e., exclusion criteria). Moreover, the respondents needed to be residents of Pakistan. Further, since the questionnaire was conducted online, respondents on social media (Facebook and WhatsApp) were the only population available to generate the data sample (i.e., inclusion criteria). The respondents were from heterogeneous backgrounds in terms of occupation, qualification, and household income, among other traits. It considerably led the findings to be generalized for the population belonging to heterogeneous backgrounds. The survey was conducted from a total of 931 respondents. After initial scrutiny, 828 questionnaires were found completely and appropriately filled in by the respondents. Those questionnaires were declared valid for analysis purposes. The designed questions are presented in Appendix B (Table 2).
