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Authors
Pooja, K
Upadhyaya, Pallavi
Mohanty, Anshuman
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Article History
Received: 13 November 2024
Accepted: 17 October 2025
First Online: 26 November 2025
Competing interests
: The authors declare no competing interests.
: This study was conducted in accordance with the ethical standards of the Institutional Ethics Committee (IEC) of Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE), India (Registration No. ECR/146/Inst/KA/2013/RR 19; DHR Registration No. EC/NEW/INST/2019/374), along with the national ethical guidelines outlined by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR, 2017), and the 1964 Helsinki Declaration, including its later amendments or equivalent ethical standards. Ethical approval was waived for this study in accordance with the specifications outlined by the Institutional Ethics Committee (IEC) of Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE) (dated 14 December 2021) which states that “pure marketing and economic research, or media-related studies that do not involve any health, psychological, or social impact on human participants (e.g., marketing trends, use of feedback systems and AI to promote products, generating economic models for sustainability based on expert opinions, etc.) are exempt from formal ethical review, provided that appropriate consent procedures are followed.” Additionally, this study also qualifies for exemption under the “Exemption from review – less than minimal risk category” as per the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) National Ethical Guidelines (2017).
: The researchers obtained informed consent from all participants between March 20, 2022, and September 17, 2022. The survey was administered online, and links were circulated among potential respondents. Each of the participants were explicitly informed that their participation was voluntary and that they could withdraw from the survey at any point without facing any consequences. Only those individuals who agreed to participate on their own accord proceeded to complete the survey. In total, 980 participants voluntarily took part in the study after being assured of the anonymity and confidentiality of their responses. They were also informed that the collected data would be used solely for academic purposes only.
