{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,5]],"date-time":"2026-05-05T12:32:07Z","timestamp":1777984327553,"version":"3.51.4"},"update-to":[{"DOI":"10.12688\/f1000research.79534.1","type":"new_version","label":"New version","source":"publisher","updated":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,5]],"date-time":"2026-03-05T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1772668800000}}],"reference-count":37,"publisher":"F1000 Research Ltd","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,5]],"date-time":"2026-03-05T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1772668800000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100015767","name":"Universitas Syiah Kuala","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["169\/UN11\/SPK\/PNBP\/2021"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["169\/UN11\/SPK\/PNBP\/2021"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100015767","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["f1000research.com"],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["F1000Res"],"abstract":"<ns7:p>Introduction: Social distancing and wearing a face mask are highly recommended to mitigate the transmission of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). However, the success of these strategies relies on individuals\u2019 adherence and public compliance. This study was conducted to assess the level of belief in social distancing and face mask practices in communities in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) and to identify their possible determinants. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in ten LMICs countries in Asia, Africa, and South America from February to May 2021. A questionnaire was used to assess the belief, practice, and their plausible determinants. Identification of the associated determinants was performed using a logistic regression model. Results: Our data revealed that only 62.6% and 66.9% of the participants had good beliefs in social distancing and good face mask practices, respectively. Residing in the Americas, having a healthcare-related job, knowing people in immediate social environment who are or have been infected and exposure to information of COVID-19 cases on social media or TV were factors significantly associated with good belief in social distancing. Residing country, gender, monthly household income, type of job and exposure to information of COVID-19 cases were significantly associated with face mask wearing practice. Conclusion: The proportion of participants having good beliefs in social distancing and good face mask practices is relatively low (&lt;75%). Hence, sustained health campaigns regarding social distancing benefits and face mask-wearing practices during COVID-19 are critical in LMICs.<\/ns7:p>","DOI":"10.12688\/f1000research.79534.2","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,5]],"date-time":"2026-03-05T15:34:06Z","timestamp":1772724846000},"page":"206","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.12688\/f1000research.crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Beliefs on social distancing and face mask practices during the COVID-19 pandemic in low- and middle-income countries: a cross-sectional 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We have revised the manuscript accordingly. Detailed point-by-point responses to each of your comments are provided below.  \n<b>REVIEWER COMMENT:&nbsp;<\/b> This study interesting study was conducted to assess the level of belief in social distancing and face mask practices in communities in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) and to identify their possible determinants. The manuscript is well written. \n<b>AUTHORS RESPONSE: <\/b> Thank you for your constructive and encouraging comments. Point-by-point responses to each of your comments are provided below.   \n<b>REVIEWER COMMENT:&nbsp;<\/b> The following comments need to be addressed by authors: 1. Please show the calculated sample size. Is it calculated for each country? You should show the sample size calculation considering the logistic regression analysis and not only for estimating a single proportion. Please elaborate on how you recruited people from each country. Is there a focal person in each country to reach people in each country? \n<b>AUTHORS RESPONSE: <\/b> Thank you for this important comment. We have revised the&nbsp;\n<b>Methods<\/b>&nbsp;section to explicitly report the minimum sample size calculation (95% confidence level, 5% margin of error, and 50% expected proportion), and clarified that this estimate was used as a&nbsp;minimum overall sample size, not a country-specific sample size. We also clarified that the final sample exceeded this minimum to support multivariable logistic regression and country-level comparisons. In addition, we expanded the recruitment procedure to explain that the survey link was distributed via social media and networks across participating countries, and that&nbsp;local collaborators\/co-authors served as focal persons in each country&nbsp;to facilitate dissemination. \n<b>ADDED\/REVISED TEXT<\/b>: \n<b>Methods \u2013 Study population and sampling<\/b> \u201cThe minimum sample size for estimating a proportion was calculated using a 5% margin of error, a 95% confidence level and a 50% conservative estimate of respondents having good beliefs in social distancing benefits and face mask practices, yielding a minimum required sample size of 385 participants. This calculation was applied as the minimum overall sample size for the study; not for each country separately. Recruitment was continued beyond this minimum to improve precision and support multivariable logistic regression analyses and country-level comparisons.\u201d \n<b>Methods \u2013 Data collection<\/b> \u201cIn each participating country, local collaborators\/co-authors served as focal persons to facilitate dissemination of the survey link through their professional and community networks.\u201d   \n<b>REVIEWER COMMENT:&nbsp;<\/b> 2. Please mention the limitations that are associated with the sampling approach you used? \n<b>AUTHORS RESPONSE: <\/b> Thank you. Thank you for this important comment. We have revised the limitations paragraph in the Discussion to explicitly acknowledge the limitation related to the sampling approach. Specifically, we added that the use of a non-probability convenience sampling approach (including online and snowball dissemination) may have introduced selection bias and limited the generalizability of the findings to the broader population in each participating country. \n<b>ADDED TEXT<\/b>: \n<b>Discussion \u2013 Limitations<\/b> \u201cIn addition, the use of a non-probability convenience sampling approach (including online and snowball dissemination) may have introduced selection bias and limited the generalizability of the findings to the broader population in each participating country.\u201d   \n<b>REVIEWER COMMENT:&nbsp;<\/b> 3. The 80% cut-off: Is it possible to cite a reference that is related to the establishing this cut-off value for any standard questionnaire? \n<b>AUTHORS RESPONSE: <\/b> Thank you for this important comment. We have revised the relevant sentence in the \n<b>Study variables <\/b>to clarify that the 80% cut-off was used as an operational (pragmatic) threshold, consistent with its use in previous studies cited in our manuscript [15,16], and not as a universally standardized cut-off for this questionnaire. \n<b>ADDED\/REVISED TEXT:<\/b> \n<b>Methods \u2013 Study variables (social distancing belief)<\/b> The 80% cut-off was used as an operational (pragmatic) threshold to dichotomize the variable into good and poor categories, consistent with its use in previous studies,\n<sup>15 ,16<\/sup>&nbsp; rather than as a universally standardized cut-off for this questionnaire.   \n<b>REVIEWER COMMENT:&nbsp;<\/b> 4.&nbsp;\n<b>Did you consider clustering within country in the analysis (Multilevel analysis)?<\/b> \n<b>AUTHORS RESPONSE: <\/b> Thank you for raising this point. We have clarified in the&nbsp;\n<b>Statistical analysis<\/b>&nbsp;section that multilevel (hierarchical) modeling was not performed in the current analysis and that country was included as an explanatory variable in the regression models. We also added this as a limitation in the&nbsp;\n<b>Discussion<\/b>. \n<b>ADDED\/REVISED TEXT:<\/b> \n<b>Methods \u2013 Statistical analysis<\/b> \u201cMultilevel modeling to account for clustering by country was not performed in the present analysis; instead, country was included as an explanatory variable in the regression models.\u201d \n<b>Discussion \u2013 Limitations<\/b> \u201cFurthermore, in this study, multilevel modelling was not performed to explicitly account for within-country clustering. Although country was included as a covariate in the regression models, residual intra-country correlation may still have remained.\u201d","URL":"https:\/\/f1000research.com\/articles\/11-206\/v2#referee-comment-15549","order":1,"name":"referee-comment-15549","label":"Referee Comment","group":{"name":"article-reports","label":"Article Reports"}},{"value":"10.5256\/f1000research.197181.r464971, Roland Nnaemeka Okoro, Department of Clinical Pharmacy and Pharmacy Administration, University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri, Borno, 14 Mar 2026, version 2, indexed","URL":"https:\/\/f1000research.com\/articles\/11-206\/v2#referee-response-464971","order":2,"name":"referee-response-464971","label":"Referee Report","group":{"name":"article-reports","label":"Article Reports"}},{"value":"This study was funded by Universitas Syiah Kuala, Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology, H-Index Scheme 2021 (169\/UN11\/SPK\/PNBP\/2021). The APC was funded by Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (KAKENHI) from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (grant number 19K17925). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.","order":3,"name":"grant-information","label":"Grant Information"},{"value":"This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licence, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.","order":0,"name":"copyright-info","label":"Copyright"}]}}