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Article History

Received: 2 February 2025

Accepted: 12 March 2026

First Online: 1 April 2026

Competing interests

: The authors declare no competing interests.

: Ethical approval for this study involving human participants was not obtained, as the authors’ institution did not have a formal Institutional Review Board (IRB) or Ethics Committee in place to review human subjects research at the time the study was conducted. Nevertheless, the research was carried out in strict accordance with internationally recognized ethical standards, including the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki. Written confirmation from the institutional leadership of the corresponding author’s university verified the absence of an ethics committee and affirmed that the research design was reviewed to ensure robust participant protections. These safeguards included: (1) voluntary participation with the right to withdraw at any time without consequence; (2) comprehensive digital informed consent obtained from all participants prior to data collection; (3) full anonymization of all participant data; and (4) secure handling and storage of all data to ensure confidentiality.

: Informed consent was obtained digitally from all participants upon their registration for the study via the professional online research platform Credamo ( ) between January and February 2024. Each participant received a comprehensive consent form in Chinese, which clearly outlined the purpose and procedures of the study, the voluntary nature of participation, the right to withdraw at any time without penalty, the guarantee of full anonymity in data handling and publication, the exclusive use of data for academic research purposes, and the absence of foreseeable risks. Explicit digital consent was confirmed by all participants prior to the commencement of the study, covering their voluntary participation, the use of anonymized data for analysis, and the dissemination of findings in academic contexts. The corresponding author supervised and verified the entire consent process to ensure full compliance, and all digital consent records were retained by the research team.