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Article History

Received: 25 December 2023

Accepted: 2 January 2025

First Online: 17 January 2025

Declarations

:

: This study was conducted in accordance with the National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research in Australia and the Code of Conduct on Health Research in Sri Lanka. Ethics approval to conduct this study in selected hospitals was obtained from the University Human Research Ethics Committee [UHREC] of Queensland University of Technology (Approval number – 2000001001) on the 28th of February 2021, Ethics Review Committee of Faculty of Health-Care Sciences, Eastern University, Sri Lanka (Approval number – E/2021/05) on the 3rd of August 2021, and the Ethics Review Committee of Department of Health Services, North-Western province, Sri Lanka (Approval number – ERC/NWP/2021/11) on the 7th of December 2021. This study conforms to the provisions of the 1995 Declaration of Helsinki (as revised in Edinburgh in 2000).

: was obtained from participants before conducting the face-to-face interview and collecting data from their medical records.

: Not Applicable.

: This manuscript has not been published anywhere else previously. Only a smaller portion of methods such as study setting, participants, and data collection, and some information on participants’ characteristics have been reported in another manuscript which is under review with another journal.

: The authors declare no competing interests.