Drone usage for medicine and vaccine delivery during the COVID-19 pandemic: attitude of health care workers in rural medical centres
Rural areas are often difficult to access reliably with medicine and vaccines. This study aimed to examine rural health care workers’ attitude towards drone delivery for medicine and vaccines and the factors that influenced it. Health care workers from four rural health care facilities were sampled....
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Published: |
MPDI
2022
|
| Online Access: | http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/101018/ |
| _version_ | 1848863472703504384 |
|---|---|
| author | Sham, Rohana Ching, Sin Siau Tan, Steven Dawn, Chii Kiu Sabhi, Hasminulhadi Zhu Thew, Hui Selvachandran, Ganeshsree Shio, Gai Quek Ahmad, Noorsiah Mohd Ramli, Mohd Hanif |
| author_facet | Sham, Rohana Ching, Sin Siau Tan, Steven Dawn, Chii Kiu Sabhi, Hasminulhadi Zhu Thew, Hui Selvachandran, Ganeshsree Shio, Gai Quek Ahmad, Noorsiah Mohd Ramli, Mohd Hanif |
| author_sort | Sham, Rohana |
| building | UPM Institutional Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | Rural areas are often difficult to access reliably with medicine and vaccines. This study aimed to examine rural health care workers’ attitude towards drone delivery for medicine and vaccines and the factors that influenced it. Health care workers from four rural health care facilities were sampled. Participants self-reported their demographic information, attitude towards medicine and vaccine delivery using drones, perception of benefits and risks of using drones, and perceived leadership innovativeness through an online or a pen-and-paper questionnaire. A total of 272 health care workers (mean age = 36.19, SD = 8.10) from all of the sites participated in this study. More than half of the study participants agreed or strongly agreed that using a drone to deliver medicine and vaccines is a good idea (54.2%, 95% CI [47.5, 60.8]), a wise idea (54.6%, 95% CI [47.9, 61.2]), and is desirable (52.5%, 95% CI [45.7, 59.0]). Males (β = 0.223), workers from the Obstetrics and Gynaecology department (β = 0.135), a lower perceived delivery risk (β = −0.237), and higher leadership innovativeness (β = 0.336) predicted positive attitudes towards drone usage. Assistant medical officers (β = −0.172) had a negative attitude. There is a need to further understand the roles of occupation and leadership innovativeness in predicting health care workers’ attitude towards drone usage, as these differences could be embedded within their roles in the health care system. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-15T13:33:28Z |
| format | Article |
| id | upm-101018 |
| institution | Universiti Putra Malaysia |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-15T13:33:28Z |
| publishDate | 2022 |
| publisher | MPDI |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | upm-1010182023-06-19T03:54:43Z http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/101018/ Drone usage for medicine and vaccine delivery during the COVID-19 pandemic: attitude of health care workers in rural medical centres Sham, Rohana Ching, Sin Siau Tan, Steven Dawn, Chii Kiu Sabhi, Hasminulhadi Zhu Thew, Hui Selvachandran, Ganeshsree Shio, Gai Quek Ahmad, Noorsiah Mohd Ramli, Mohd Hanif Rural areas are often difficult to access reliably with medicine and vaccines. This study aimed to examine rural health care workers’ attitude towards drone delivery for medicine and vaccines and the factors that influenced it. Health care workers from four rural health care facilities were sampled. Participants self-reported their demographic information, attitude towards medicine and vaccine delivery using drones, perception of benefits and risks of using drones, and perceived leadership innovativeness through an online or a pen-and-paper questionnaire. A total of 272 health care workers (mean age = 36.19, SD = 8.10) from all of the sites participated in this study. More than half of the study participants agreed or strongly agreed that using a drone to deliver medicine and vaccines is a good idea (54.2%, 95% CI [47.5, 60.8]), a wise idea (54.6%, 95% CI [47.9, 61.2]), and is desirable (52.5%, 95% CI [45.7, 59.0]). Males (β = 0.223), workers from the Obstetrics and Gynaecology department (β = 0.135), a lower perceived delivery risk (β = −0.237), and higher leadership innovativeness (β = 0.336) predicted positive attitudes towards drone usage. Assistant medical officers (β = −0.172) had a negative attitude. There is a need to further understand the roles of occupation and leadership innovativeness in predicting health care workers’ attitude towards drone usage, as these differences could be embedded within their roles in the health care system. MPDI 2022-04-27 Article PeerReviewed Sham, Rohana and Ching, Sin Siau and Tan, Steven and Dawn, Chii Kiu and Sabhi, Hasminulhadi and Zhu Thew, Hui and Selvachandran, Ganeshsree and Shio, Gai Quek and Ahmad, Noorsiah and Mohd Ramli, Mohd Hanif (2022) Drone usage for medicine and vaccine delivery during the COVID-19 pandemic: attitude of health care workers in rural medical centres. Drones, 6 (5). art. no. 109. pp. 1-10. ISSN 2504-446X https://www.mdpi.com/2504-446X/6/5/109 10.3390/drones6050109 |
| spellingShingle | Sham, Rohana Ching, Sin Siau Tan, Steven Dawn, Chii Kiu Sabhi, Hasminulhadi Zhu Thew, Hui Selvachandran, Ganeshsree Shio, Gai Quek Ahmad, Noorsiah Mohd Ramli, Mohd Hanif Drone usage for medicine and vaccine delivery during the COVID-19 pandemic: attitude of health care workers in rural medical centres |
| title | Drone usage for medicine and vaccine delivery during the COVID-19 pandemic: attitude of health care workers in rural medical centres |
| title_full | Drone usage for medicine and vaccine delivery during the COVID-19 pandemic: attitude of health care workers in rural medical centres |
| title_fullStr | Drone usage for medicine and vaccine delivery during the COVID-19 pandemic: attitude of health care workers in rural medical centres |
| title_full_unstemmed | Drone usage for medicine and vaccine delivery during the COVID-19 pandemic: attitude of health care workers in rural medical centres |
| title_short | Drone usage for medicine and vaccine delivery during the COVID-19 pandemic: attitude of health care workers in rural medical centres |
| title_sort | drone usage for medicine and vaccine delivery during the covid-19 pandemic: attitude of health care workers in rural medical centres |
| url | http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/101018/ http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/101018/ http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/101018/ |