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This study aims to examine the relationship between public knowledge, awareness and attitudes towards post-COVID-19 infection prevention in Sarawak. At present, Sarawak is in the post-pandemic stage, marked by a gradual return to normalcy, albeit with some persistent changes caused by the pandemic.

Data were collected from various geographic areas in Sarawak through a Google Form link and QR code during a cross-sectional study, resulting in the acquisition of 1,128 responses. Data analysis was performed using SPSS 28.0 and WarpPLS 8.0.

The result revealed that out of five hypotheses, four were found to be supported, indicating a positive relationship between public knowledge, awareness and attitudes towards COVID-19 infection prevention. However, an unsupported relationship was found between public awareness and infection prevention practices.

This study is limited to the Malaysian population and has a cross-sectional design, affecting generalizability. It is recommended that future research complete an in-depth study of the knowledge, awareness and practices of COVID-19 using other data collection techniques.

Public health and policymakers can use the study to implement effective communication strategies and prioritize digitalization for economic recovery. It highlights the importance of preventive measures and the public’s role in managing future pandemics.

The originality of this research can be drawn from key findings that indicate that people overall gained knowledge on the prevention measures during the post-COVID-19 pandemic, and the accuracy of the information significantly impacts public knowledge, awareness and practices of COVID-19 infection prevention.

The purpose of this study is to examine the corruption prevalent in the distribution of COVID-19 palliatives during the lockdown and movement restrictions in the country. This study seeks to analyse the current state of corruption in the distribution of COVID-19 palliatives and public health facilities in Nigeria while also providing a legal insight and strategic blueprint to combat corruption. To this end, this study will address the current legal framework for combating corruption and build upon this to formulate a working strategy for tackling corruption in the future.

Using a doctrinal legal research methodology, this study draws upon existing literature, tertiary data sources and information from the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control. The collected data is analysed and compared with current literature to identify key findings. Rent-seeking and utilitarian theories of the law were examined to guide this study. This study offers useful insights into combating corruption. The use of this method is justified, as it enhances the credibility of the findings on the importance of strategies for future emergencies. This legal research approach is consistent with the law and can be easily verified. The empirical aspect of this study involved a survey of multidimensional health-care and economic data set of 36 states in Nigeria plus the Federal Capital Territory on COVID-19 in Nigeria. A survey linearised regression model was estimated to determine the influence of government revenue and public health-care facilities in the control of the virus spread in Nigeria.

This study reveals the need for emphasis on the imperative of combating corruption in the distribution of COVID-19 palliatives and establishing economic resilience through transparent and accountable practices, supported by legal frameworks.

Rent-seeking and utilitarian theories of law are evaluated because of their impacts on combating corruption. The limitation of this study is the intricacy of gathering data on COVID-19 palliatives corruption in Nigeria because of secrecy and the absence of reliable data on the subject.

Estimating the exact number of stolen palliatives and their fiscal impact on Nigeria's economy proves to be a formidable task because of the covert nature of corruption. This study equips policymakers in Nigeria with a better understanding of the legal challenges posed by corruption in the health care sector and provides an effective strategy to combat it.

The lack of reliable data on the extent of palliative theft hinders the ability of lawmakers to enact effective legislation and strategies for combating corruption in the distribution of COVID-19 palliatives and addressing future emergencies in Nigeria. The policy implications of this study can assist policymakers in Nigeria and other countries in formulating measures to combat corruption in the distribution of COVID-19 palliatives and other future emergencies. Furthermore, it recommends the overhaul of anti-corruption laws and mechanisms in Nigeria to ensure effective measures against corruption.

In conclusion, this study contributes to knowledge by proposing a legal model centred on people's participation to enhance transparency and accountability in future palliative distribution processes. This study recommends legal strategies that can effectively address corruption in future emergencies or shocks. This study proposes a strategic blueprint to tackle corruption in the future. This blueprint includes an analysis of existing laws and regulations, as well as potential policy changes and legislative reform. This study also includes recommendations for improved enforcement and oversight mechanisms and for improved public awareness and education. As part of this, this study considers the potential for public–private partnerships to increase transparency and accountability in public health and health-care services.

The purpose of this study is to determine the strategy adopted by small- and medium-scale enterprise (SME) owners in setting up internal control systems, examine the relationship between the numbers of employees’ fraud and strategy adopted in setting up internal control and evaluate the difference between proactive and reactive strategies in employee’s fraud prevention among SMEs.

A survey research approach was adopted to determine whether proactive or reactive strategies were adopted by the SME owners. Specifically, a survey questionnaire was used to gather primary data from selected respondents in Lagos and Oyo States. Descriptive statistics, Spearman correlation and the Mann–Whitney test were used to analyse the primary data.

The study found that most of the SME owners used reactive internal control strategies in setting up their internal control systems after they suffered financial losses occasioned by employees’ fraud. Also, the study found a positive relationship between the number of employees’ fraud and reactive strategy. Finally, the study found a significant difference in the number of employees’ fraud occurrences between proactive and reactive internal control strategies in SMEs.

The study provides further confirmation that where internal control is properly set up and strengthened, a lower number of employee frauds will occur. Thus, giving credence to the fraud theory. The study was, however, conducted in six selected local government areas in two states.

The study provides recommendations on the adoption of a proactive strategy for curbing employees’ fraud at the onset of business operations and not until devastating events of employees’ fraud become a reality.

The study is original, as it focuses on the strategy adopted by SME owners in setting up internal control systems, which is rare in fraud empirical studies, particularly for studies conducted in emerging markets like Nigeria. It provides the need for the sustainability of SMEs as engine of growth and employment through the adoption of appropriate strategies in setting up internal control systems.

The Whole Child Initiative (WCI) was developed over the past 15 years as a blueprint to promote long-term development and success of all children, as well as their families and communities. This chapter describes three aspects of the WCI model: (a) the need for a public health approach to sustainable, communitywide change targeting the whole child; (b) a clear, future-oriented vision for equipping educators, caregivers, and service providers with the skills and attitudes required to deliver high-quality instruction; and (c) the infusion of social and emotional learning practices to transform environments in which youth live and play. We provide examples of how schools, communities, and families can come together to create a common culture fostering stable and nurturing relationships essential for enhancing youth well-being. We close with recommended “super strategies” – low-cost, simple, and effective practices that can be broadly implemented to keep every child healthy, safe, engaged, supported, and challenged in the community at large.

The current work aims to present a review of academic literature that systematizes the body of knowledge related to marketing and consumer behavior in order to identify the most effective variables that encourage the consumer towards a proper and better lifestyle, accordingly the paradigm of management, marketing and technology efforts to promote a “better” society preventing obesity.

A literature review was carried out to examine the studies of marketing and consumer behavior published in international peer-reviewed journals over the last twenty-three years (2000–2023). Our review finally considered a total amount of 46 articles.

Findings elucidate three overarching themes and associated sub-hemes, encompassing: (1) Product design for obesity prevention, including aspects such as labeling, nomenclature, packaging and assortment; (2) Technology-supported preventive measures, involving mobile applications, self-monitoring, short message services and digital therapeutics; and (3) Marketing and communication strategies, incorporating social advertising, nudge, social influence and initiatives targeting childhood obesity prevention. Furthermore, a comprehensive research agenda is presented, delineating potential avenues for future investigations predicated on the utility of the results in fostering subsequent endeavors within the realms of: efficacy and effectiveness studies; personalization and tailoring; behavioral change techniques and gamification; user experience and acceptance; cost-effectiveness and implementation; as well as ethical and privacy concerns.

Main limitations are related to the characteristics of the analyzed literature, resulting in only English journal articles, book chapter and so on. Thus, other relevant contributions in different languages discussing interesting insights might have been neglected.

This study offers several insights to managers, marketers and policymakers involved in the issue of the obesity prevention. Since obesity represents a crucial challenge for public health at a global level, with its incidence reaching epidemic proportions in recent decades, the results may be extremely useful and powerful because suggesting – by employing a robust resulting corpus of knowledge on this domain – several practical features, actions and tactics to face such an important challenge. Moreover, this paper offers for scholar and researcher a systematized knowledge around the issues of obesity prevention, together with a detailed research agenda emerging by the critical analysis of the emerging insights, and to practitioners systematized useful insights to project and develop their future business strategies.

By providing several actions and tactics for obesity prevention (e.g. as for product labeling, naming, packaging, assortment; the exploitation of new technologies for mobile applications design, self-monitoring, short message service (SMS) alert systems, digital therapeutics; the role of social advertising, nudge, social influence) this work perfectly match the emerging societal orientation related to business, marketing and technology efforts to create a “better” society.

The study shed lights the need for a holistic approach to obesity prevention, involving interaction between individual main topics. Importantly this is the first study to analyze the issue of obesity prevention by considering a multidisciplinary corpus of literature, analyzed trough an individual-centric orientation.

Via the lens of the ego-depletion phenomenon (Baumeister et al., 1998) and Higgins' (1998) regulatory focus theory, this paper seeks to explain why current controlled communications are failing to achieve coherence between people's free will and their actions pursuing sustainable goals in a society. This paper explains how ego-depletion triggered by controlled communications can lead to confusion and decision fatigue in a society, thus potentially sabotaging people's participation in sustainable behaviour.

The authors applied Jaakkola's (2020) theory synthesis approach to integrate concepts from previously unconnected disciplines in order to generate novel insights in the area of controlled communication management.

The authors develop a theoretical framework and present research propositions that can help advance research and the discourse at the intersection of controlled communication and self-regulation theories.

This paper possesses the limitations associated with conceptual papers, e.g. the lack of empirical support of the study’s conceptual arguments.

This paper generates novel insights to assist communication practitioners and policymakers to improve vehicles and mechanisms of controlled communication with the public regarding sustainable goals pursuit.

To the best of authors' knowledge, this is one of the first papers that has merged the domains of self-regulation, ego-depletion, and controlled communication in an integrative framework in order to explain the mechanisms of how to enhance the effectiveness of controlled communication associated with sustainable goals pursuit.

This study aims to address the question of why managers make different decisions in employee downsizing when their firms face external threats. Our research intends to shed light on whether and how CEOs' cognition (motivational attributes associated with regulatory focus) influences their decision-making and firms’ strategic actions on downsizing under high resource scarcity in the industry environment.

We used a longitudinal panel of 5,544 firm-year observations of US firms from 2003 to 2015 to test our conceptual model. The data was obtained from various sources, including corporate earnings call transcripts and archival databases. We used panel logistic regressions with both fixed and random effects in our research design.

Our results suggest that CEOs' motivational attributes could influence their employee downsizing decisions in response to external threats. We find that CEOs who are more promotion-focused (a stronger drive towards achieving ideals) are less likely to lay off employees during high resource scarcity. Conversely, CEOs with a higher prevention focus (a greater concern for security) do not have a meaningful impact on employee downsizing during periods of external resource scarcity.

Previous research has argued that a significant external threat would diminish individuals' impact on firm strategies and outcomes. Our findings challenge this idea, indicating that CEOs with a stronger drive towards achieving ideals are less inclined to lay off employees when resources are scarce in the environment. This study contributes to behavioral strategy research by providing new insights into how upper echelons’ cognition can influence their decision-making and firms’ employee downsizing.

Women involved in the carceral system (CS) experience several conditions that increase their risk for HIV (e.g. high rates of substance use, psychiatric disorders, histories of victimization). The purpose of this study is to explore perspectives on potential strategies to connect women in the CS to pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) services.

This study conducted in-depth interviews with 27 women involved in the CS eligible for PrEP. Using vignettes, interviews explored attitudes, barriers and facilitators toward PrEP screening, referral and linkage facilitated via a CS stakeholder, an mHealth application or providing PrEP service referrals during detention via a navigator.

Most women were, on average, 41.3 years, from racial and ethnic minority groups (56% black/African American; 19% Latinx). Inductive thematic analysis revealed CS involved women expressed mostly positive attitudes toward CS-based PrEP implementation. Younger women were more accepting of and interested in mHealth interventions. Implementation facilitators included leveraging relationships with trusted allies (e.g. “peers”) and existing systems collaborations. Recommended implementation strategies included providing HIV and PrEP-specific education and training for system stakeholders and addressing issues related to privacy, system mistrust and stigma.

Results provide a critical foundation for the implementation of interventions to improve PrEP access for women involved in the CS and have important implications for implementation strategies for all adults involved in the CS. Improving access to PrEP among this population may also support progress toward addressing national disparities in PrEP uptake, where women, black and Latinx populations have substantial unmet need.

Mental well-being is associated with positive outcomes throughout the life course. This study aims to examine interventions delivered by allied health professionals (AHPs) to alleviate community stressors adversely impacting public mental health and well-being.

Review inclusion criteria comprised experimental and qualitative process evaluations of public mental health interventions delivered by AHPs. Electronic searches in Cinahl, Embase, Medline, PsycINFO and the Cochrane Library, were combined with grey literature searches of National Institute for Health and Care Excellence public health guidance. A narrative synthesis and the Effective Public Health Practice Project appraisal tool were used to evaluate the evidence.

A total of 45-articles were included in the review describing AHP-delivered interventions addressing social disadvantage, trauma, bullying, loneliness, work-related stress, transitional stress, intersectionality, pain and bereavement. No articles were identified evaluating interventions delivered by operating department practitioners or orthoptists. A conceptual map was developed summarising the stressors, and a typology of public mental health interventions defined including: place-based interventions, discrete/one-off interventions, multi-component lifestyle and social connector interventions and interventions targeting groups at risk of mental health conditions.

Many mental health conditions begin in childhood, and a strength of the review is the life course perspective. A further strength is compiling a compendium of public mental health outcome measures used by AHPs to inform future research. The authors excluded many articles focussed on clinical interventions/populations, which did not meet review inclusion criteria. While playing a key role in delivering public mental health interventions, clinical psychologists are not defined as AHPs and were excluded from the review, and this may be construed a limitation. Given heterogeneity of study designs and interventions evaluated numerical analyses of pooled findings was not appropriate.

The review highlights the breadth of community stressors on which AHPs can intervene and contribute in public mental health contexts, stressors which correspond to those identified in UK Government guidance as currently important and relevant to address. The findings can inform developing community public mental health pathways that align with the UK National Health Service (NHS) Long Term Plan, on prevention and early intervention to protect community mental health and well-being. Further can inform the NHS strategic direction for AHPs including informing ways of increasing utilisation of core AHP skills to optimise contributions in public mental health agendas.

It is surprising there were not more AHP delivered evaluations of interventions for other stressors important to address in public mental health settings, for example gambling, domestic violence or that used digital technology, and these are areas for future research. Future research should identify the most active/effective dimensions of multi-component interventions which could be informed by frameworks to guide complex intervention development. The relative paucity of research identified, highlights the predominant focus of research to date on interventions for clinical mental health conditions and populations. The lack of preventative approaches is evident, and an important area for future research to align with UK health and social care priorities.

The review highlights AHP-delivered interventions impacting diverse community stressors across the life course. The findings can inform developing public mental health pathways aligned with government health service priorities to protect mental health and well-being, prioritise prevention and early intervention and increase utilisation of AHP skills across public mental health settings.

Domestic violence is an intimate relationship that causes physical, sexual or mental suffering. The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has had a ruinous effect globally, particularly in increasing the rate of domestic violence. Thus, this study aims to assess the prevalence of domestic violence against women during the COVID-19 pandemic and its associated factors.

A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted on Bench Sheko Zone residents from May to June 2021. Participants in the study were selected by multistage sampling technique. The collected data were coded, entered into EpiData 3.1 and analyzed by using SPSS version 20. Bi-variable and multiple logistic regression analysis models were fitted. Odds ratio was used at a 95% confidence level, and P-value < 0.05 was used to declare statistical significance.

A total of 1,512 eligible women participated, with a 98.3% response rate. The proportion of domestic violence against women was 42.5%. The prevalence of psychological violence was 30.4%, followed by physical violence at 20.2% and sexual violence accounted for 9.6%. Variables, such as rural residency, women with no formal education, partner who had no formal education, women with monthly income of less than 25,00 Ethiopian birr and partner who was current substance user, were found to be associated with domestic violence against women.

Domestic violence against women is still an important public health problem in Ethiopia. Special attention should be paid to identified predictors to reduce domestic violence beyond designing prevention and control strategies along with coronavirus pandemic intervention plan.

The findings of this study show domestic violence against women is still an important public health problem in Ethiopia. Special attention should be paid to identified predictors to reduce domestic violence beyond designing prevention and control strategies, along with the coronavirus pandemic intervention plan.