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Article History

Received: 25 January 2025

Accepted: 16 February 2026

First Online: 25 February 2026

Competing interests

: The authors declare no competing interests.

: All procedures in this study involving human participants were conducted in accordance with institutional and national ethical standards and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments. Ethical approval for this study was obtained prior to data collection from the Ethical Review Board of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (Reference No. HSEARS20240315013; approval date: 25 March 2024). The approval covered the full study protocol and its scope. All recruitment procedures, informed consent processes, and data collection activities were centrally designed and administered by the research team at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. The study was conducted under the auspices of a single institution and did not involve site-based data collection, local institutional collaborators, or local investigators in the host countries. In accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki, the study protocol, including the survey instrument, recruitment strategy, informed consent procedures, and data management plan, was reviewed and approved by the above-named ethics committee before the research commenced. All participants provided informed consent prior to participation.

: Informed consent was obtained from all participants before data collection. Participants were provided with the standard online information sheet issued by The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, which described the study purpose, procedures, potential risks, and participant rights. They indicated their consent electronically before accessing the questionnaire. Consent was obtained between April and August 2024.