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Abstract Background The COVID-19 pandemic has made devastating impacts on public health and global economy. While most people experience mild symptoms, it is highly transmissible and deadly in at-risk populations. Telemedicine has the potential to prevent hospitalization and provide remote care. Methods This retrospective study included 336 people with COVID-19, among which 141 (42%) and 195 (58%) were in Delta and Omicron dominant groups, respectively. Patients were confirmed to have COVID-19 by PCR or rapid test and were cared for via telemedicine. Severe cases were hospitalized for more intensive treatment. Results The majority of individuals recovered at home (97.02%), while 2.98% required hospitalization. All hospital admissions were in Delta dominant group. No deaths were reported. Delta dominant group was more likely to develop loss of taste and smell, decreased appetite and need longer treatment time than those in Omicron dominant group. Conclusions Telemedicine is a safe measure to provide at-home care for people with COVID-19 infections caused by both Delta and Omicron variants. Trial registration This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board Committee of University of Medicine and Pharmacy at Ho Chi Minh City (IRB No: 22115–DHYD).

This quantitative study used the Stimulus-Organism-Response theory to examine the relationships among authentic experience, tourist satisfaction, place attachment, and behavioral intention in religious destination context. The survey questionnaire was designed to obtain the data. The responses of 566 tourists that paid a visit to the Father Diep Church, a famous religious destination in southern Vietnam, were analyzed. The results revealed that tourist satisfaction significantly influenced on place attachment, destination revisit intention, and word-of-mouth. Furthermore, word-of-mouth and revisit intentions were sharply and positively impacted by place attachment, whereas the influence of authentic experience on tourist satisfaction, revisit intention, and word-of-mouth was noteworthy. Moreover, demographic factors, such as being female, being a business tourist, and observing a different religion (non-Catholic), were associated with higher revisit intention. These findings could provide guidelines for developing marketing strategies for religious destinations and be theoretically based on for further empirical validation.

Vaccines are strongly recommended globally as an effective measure to prevent serious illness from and spread of COVID-19. Concerns about safety following vaccination continue to be the most common reason that people do not accept the vaccine. This retrospective study was carried out on 4341 people who received the first dose of ChAdOx1 nCoV-19, BBIBP-CorV, or mRNA-1273 vaccine at Jio Health Clinic in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Post-injection side effects were either reported by participants or actively collected by health care staff by means of telemedicine. Local side effects were reported by 35.5% of all individuals, with pain being the most common symptom (33.3%). Systemic side effects were reported by 44.2% of individuals, with fever (25.3%) and fatigue (21.4%) being the most common. Age ≤60 years, female gender, and ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 were significant independent risk factors for both local and systemic side effects, while a history of allergy was significant as a risk factor for local side effects. A total of 43 individuals (1.0%) reported concerning symptoms of rare severe complications, which were addressed and treated by physicians via Jio Health app.

Understanding the factors that contribute to store brand equity in the Vietnamese retailing industry is important. This study expands the “stimuli” components in the stimuli–organism-response (S-O-R) framework by considering the role of store information transparency and examining its contribution to store brand equity as an indirect “response” through relationship quality (trust, commitment, and satisfaction) and as the “organism” in the Vietnamese retailing setting. Quantitative research was conducted with a sample of 465 retail customers collected by the Ho Chi Minh City Statistical Office, Vietnam. Structural equation modeling was used to test the research hypotheses, and the results confirmed access convenience, store information transparency, and preferential treatment as the stimuli while relationship quality was the organism and store brand equity was the response. In a developing country such as Vietnam, store information transparency is important. Specifically, the dedication-constraint mechanisms based on social exchange theory together with the cultural norms of Vietnam’s Confucian culture create a locked-in effect for the customer in the relationship with a retailer and resulted in high store brand equity. These findings offer insight into brand management literature and provide theoretical and managerial implications to increase the value of store brand equity in the Vietnamese retail industry.

The consumer entitlement (CE) construct is a key variable in the exchange process in retail environments. The original Consumer Entitlement Inventory (CEI) was developed and applied within Western cultural boundaries. The main contribution of this study is the extension of the original CEI to better fit the Vietnamese context and to demonstrate its applicability in the context of an emerging economy with a Confucian culture. The study also contributes to expanding the range of identified boycott motives in the literature and clarifying their mechanism via social exchange theory. The extended CEI scale was tested using exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis, using a sample of 603 respondents. Qualitative and quantitative research results show that the extended CEI has two dimensions, namely intransigence, and demand and distinction, with adequate content, reliability, convergent validity, and discriminant validity. This study also aimed to apply the extended CEI to an exploration of the relationship between CE and willingness to boycott. Research results from another independent study with 450 respondents using a structural equation model confirmed the positive relationship between CE and willingness to boycott. In addition, theoretical implications are discussed.