Study On Knowledge And Skills About Public Health Emergency Response Among General Population In Chaoyang District Of Beijing

Objective To investigate the status of knowledge and skills about public health emergency response among general population in Chaoyang District of Beijing and to understand the ways from which the residents acquire knowledge and skills about public health emergency response. To analyze the influencing factors of knowledge and skills about public health emergency response. Moreover, to provide evidences for the development of measures and strategies about public health emergency response of interventional study.MethodsⅠ. Quantitative Study. Field face-to-face questionnaire survey was conducted in Chaoyang District of Beijing, in October, 2008. The residents aged over 18 were targeted population. 2000 residents were investigated by using the method of multi-stage sampling, 1000 from urban areas and the other 1000 from rural areas. The questionnaire was designed by the team of the project named "Intervention on Knowledge and Skills about Public Health Emergency Response among General Population". Four parts were included in the questionnaire, they were the basic information of targeted population, the disasters response, the infectious diseases response and other public health emergency response. Data were analyzed by Chi-square test, Spearman correlation analysis and Multifactor unconditional logistic analysis.Ⅱ. Qualitative Study. 16 groups of focus group discussion were conducted in Chaoyang District of Beijing using the uniform discussion outline designed by the team of the project, which was consisted of ten questions related to public health response. Residents in Chaoyang District of Beijing aged 18 were the targeted population too. 160 residents took part in the focus group discussion, 10 in each group. ResultsⅠ. The Reliability and Validity of the Questionnaire. The results showed that the questionnaire had high reliability and validity.①The Spearman Rank Correlation Coefficient of all indicators were ranged from 0.655 to 1.000, all the P values were less than 0.01.②The values of CronbachαCoefficient of the last three parts of the questionnaire were 0.70, 0.60 and 0.43 respectively.③The questionnaire had high content validity, for all the indicators in the questionnaire were consistent with the experts' and the general population's opinions.④Nine public factors were produced by factors analyzing of "the disasters response" part, they could explain 53.6% of the variance.Ⅱ. Quantitative Study.①2000 residents were surveyed and 1997 valid questionnaires were received. The valid rate was 99.85%.②The ratio of male to female was 1:1.02, the average age of targeted population was 45.4±14.6.③The overall results of "KAP" of targeted population about emergency preparedness was low. The total awareness rate of emergency preparedness was 81.6%, the total awareness rate of goods contained in the go-kit was 94.4%, which was higher in urban areas than that in rural areas (P<0.01). 1194 (59.8%) residents considered that earthquake, fire, or other emergency events would probably happen in the areas where they live. The percentage of families which had go-kits and fire extinguishers was low, only 2.5% of the families had go-kits, 7.3% of the families had fire extinguishers. Only 13.1% of the residents usually discussed how to cope with emergency events with family members, 6.4% of the residents have had escaping practices with family members, which was higher in urban areas than that in rural areas (P<0.01) .④The total awareness rate of knowledge and skills about earthquake response was 89.4%, there are no significant difference in urban areas and rural areas (P>0.05) ; the total awareness rate of knowledge and skills about flood response was 75.1 %, which was higher in urban areas than that in rural areas (P< 0.01); the total awareness rate of knowledge and skills about fire response was 88.7%, which was higher in rural areas than that in urban areas (P<0.01) .⑤66.0% of the residents paid great attention to the infectious diseases outbreaks in the community. The awareness rate of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndromes (SARS) , influenza, measles, Bird Flu, tuberculosis were 91.3%, 88.0%, 80.2%, 88.0% and 60.3% respectively, the awareness rate of SARS was higher in rural areas than that in urban areas (P<0.01), the awareness rates of measles, and tuberculosis were both higher in urban areas than that in rural areas (P<0.01). The awareness rates of typhoid fever, cholera, plague were 19.9%, 77.1 % and 94.8% respectively. The awareness rate of typhoid fever in urban areas was higher than that in rural areas (P<0.01) , while the awareness rate of cholera was lower in urban than that in rural (P<0.01).⑥The total awareness rate of food-mediated poison was 79.1 %, which was higher in urban areas than that in rural areas (P<0.01); the awareness rate of "122" alarm number for serious traffic accident was 85.9%, there was no significant difference between the urban areas and the rural areas (P > 0.05). The awareness rate of correct flee direction in the situation of toxic gas or chemicals divulges was 81.0%, which was higher in the urban areas than that in the rural areas (P<0.01) .There were 457 (45.8%) residents from urban areas who thought they knew what radiation accident was, while 337 residents (33.7% ) from rural areas. Among the 794 residents who thought they knew what radiation accident was, the total awareness rate of radiation accident response was 57.4%, which was higher in the urban areas than that in the rural areas (P<0.01) .⑦Areas, occupation, education level, individual experiences, certain extent of cares for infectious diseases, whether often discussed emergency events response, whether have had escaping practices were the influencing factors to the level of residents' knowledge and skills.⑧The main channels the residents got knowledge and skills on public health emergency response were television, newspaper /magazine and radio.Ⅲ. Qualitative Study.①Most of the interviewees in the focus group discussion told that they had heard about public health emergency, while no one could tell the overall classification and categories of public health emergency, they could just tell the name of specific disease or event.②Most of the interviewees thought that they had experienced public health emergency, which they talked most often were SARS and earthquake.③Methods coping with infectious disease outbreaks were discussed by every group, such as "isolating the source of infection" , "timely reporting" , "environmental and individual hygiene promotion" , and so on, while the details about how to isolate and report were discussed by very few residents.④To deal with food poison events, some of the interviewees mentioned food residue reservation, fewer referred to the details of how to emetic.⑤About half of the group members mentioned the emergency preparedness goods, such as food, water, drugs, and so on, while a small number of interviewees could refer to first-aid-kit or go-kit, very few people mentioned the details how to develop a plan or how to acquire relative information.⑥Almost all of the interviewees thought it was very necessary to prepare go-kits, knowledge and skills about escaping, self-aid and buddy aid.⑦The main channel which the interviewees usually got information from or would like to use was television, and the interviewees hoped the professionals will implement the training work.Conclusion①The source of data was reliable. The designed questionnaire had good reliability validity and could reflect the real condition of residents' knowledge and skills about public health emergency response.②The awareness rates of earthquake and fire response of the targeted population were high, which showed that health education could improve residents' knowledge and skills about public health emergency response efficiently.③The awareness about emergency preparedness of targeted population was not high enough and the emergency materials preparedness was not enough too. The knowledge and skills about public health emergency response of the targeted population need to be improved, especially the transmission of measles, tuberculosis and typhoid fever, the knowledge and skills about food-mediated poison response and radiation accident response.④The channels through which they got information were limited. The knowledge and skills about public health emergency response of the targeted population were affected by several factors, such as education level, occupation, individual experiences, and so on. Therefore, it is necessary to conduct health education activities according to characteristics, needs of targeted population using suitable media to improve residents' awareness and abilities of public health emergency response, such as group discussion, display and scene practice.⑤It is also necessary to develop and generalize go-kit to improve residents' awareness of emergency materials preparedness and help them know how to prepare emergency materials.