Mahsusi Mahsusi, Syihaabul Hudaa, Nuryani Nuryani, Mustofa Fahmi, Ghina Tsurayya, Muhammad Iqhrammullah
Background: During health crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic, shortages of health care workers often occur. Recruiting students as volunteers could be an option, but it is uncertain whether the idea is well-accepted. Objective: This study aims to estimate the global rate of willingness to volunteer among medical and health students in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: A systematic search was conducted on PubMed, Embase, Scopus, and Google Scholar for studies reporting the number of health students willing to volunteer during COVID-19 from 2019 to November 17, 2023. The meta-analysis was performed using a restricted maximum-likelihood model with logit transformation. Results: A total of 21 studies involving 26,056 health students were included in the meta-analysis. The pooled estimate of the willingness-to-volunteer rate among health students across multiple countries was 66.13%, with an I2 of 98.99% and P value of heterogeneity (P-Het)<.001. Removing a study with the highest influence led to the rate being 64.34%. Our stratified analyses indicated that those with older age, being first-year students, and being female were more willing to volunteer (P<.001). From highest to lowest, the rates were 77.38%, 77.03%, 65.48%, 64.11%, 62.71%, and 55.23% in Africa, Western Europe, East and Southeast Asia, Middle East, and Eastern Europe, respectively. Because of the high heterogeneity, the evidence from this study has moderate strength. Conclusions: The majority of students are willing to volunteer during COVID-19, suggesting that volunteer recruitment is well-accepted. © 2024 JMIR Publications Inc.. All rights reserved.
Department of Islamic Education Management, Faculty of Tarbiyah and Teacher Training, Universitas Islam Negeri Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta, Tangerang Selatan, Indonesia; Department of Management, Institut Teknologi dan Bisnis Ahmad Dahlan Jakarta, Banten, Indonesia; Department of Indonesian Language and Literature Education, Faculty of Tarbiyah and Teacher Training, Universitas Islam Negeri Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta, Tangerang Selatan, Indonesia; Ministry of Religious Affairs, the Republic of Indonesia, Jakarta, Indonesia; Medical Research Unit, School of Medicine, Universitas Syiah Kuala, Banda Aceh, Indonesia; Program of Public Health, Universitas Muhammadiyah Aceh, Banda Aceh, Indonesia
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