Article History
Received: 27 November 2023
Accepted: 30 October 2024
First Online: 8 November 2024
Competing interests
: The authors declare no competing interests.
: All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. The ethics approval was obtained by the Human Research Ethics Committee of the University of Technology Sydney (Approval NO. ETH21-6087, Approval date: 13 July 2021). Due to COVID-19 restrictions during 2021–2022, an additional ethics amendment approval was obtained from the Human Research Ethics Committee of the University of Technology Sydney to change the data collection method from face-to-face to Zoom or online interviews (Approval No. ETH21-6736, Approval date: 14 December 2021). The ethics approval and its amendment covered all aspects of the study, including participant recruitment, methodologies, data collection and analysis. All procedures were conducted in line with these regulations to ensure the protection of participants’ rights, confidentiality, and informed consent throughout the research.
: Written informed consent was obtained from all participants through the Qualtrics platform prior to their participation in the study. The informed consent process was conducted from December 2021 to June 2022 by the research team, in accordance with the ethical standards. All participants were provided with clear information about the study’s objectives, procedures, potential risks (low risks), and participants’ rights, highlighting the voluntary nature of participation and the right to withdraw at any time during the study. Participants were assured that their anonymity and confidentiality would be strictly protected, and that any publications would be fully anonymous. As a token of appreciation, participants who completed the interview received an AUD 30 (approximately USD 20) gift card for Woolworths supermarket to thank them for their time. This gift was provided solely as a gesture of gratitude and was approved by the Human Research Ethics Committee of the University of Technology Sydney in the ethics approvals of this study.