Abstract
This study aimed to better understand the current situation of risk assessment and identify the factors associated with competence of emergency responders in public health risk assessment. The participants were selected by a multi-stage, stratified cluster sampling method in Heilongjiang Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The questionnaires that measured their perceptions on risk assessment competences were administered through the face-to-face survey. A final sample of 1889 staff was obtained. Of this sample, 78.6% of respondents rated their own risk assessment competences as “relatively low”, contrasting with 21.4% rated as “relatively high”. Most of the respondents (62.7%) did not participate in any risk assessment work. Only 13.7% and 42.7% of respondents reported participating in risk assessment training and were familiar with risk assessment tools. There existed statistical significance between risk assessment-related characteristics of respondents and their self-rated competences scores. Financial support from the government and administrative attention were regarded as the important factors contributing to risk assessment competences of CDC responders. Higher attention should be given to risk assessment training and enhancing the availability of surveillance data. Continuous efforts should be made to remove the financial and technical obstacles to improve the competences of risk assessment for public health emergency responders.
Highlights
Following the landmark events of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndromes (SARS) outbreak, the rapid expansion of H1N1 worldwide, as well as frequent emergencies occurring in last decade, the international community has been brought into a high-risk society threatened by public health emergencies
A major goal of the present study was to understand the competence of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) respondents carry out risk assessment and examine the associations between self-rated competence scores and to carry out risk assessment and examine the associations between self-rated competence scores characteristics of study participants including demographics and risk assessment-related issues, in and characteristics of study participants including demographics and risk assessment-related order to further explore perceived factors that impact the risk assessment competencies of issues, in order to further explore perceived factors that impact the risk assessment competencies respondents, which may be instructive for the promotion of local public health emergencies of respondents, which may be instructive for the promotion of local public health emergencies management
The results found that training was a key element for risk assessment competence in public health emergency responders
Summary
Following the landmark events of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndromes (SARS) outbreak, the rapid expansion of H1N1 worldwide, as well as frequent emergencies occurring in last decade, the international community has been brought into a high-risk society threatened by public health emergencies. Risk assessment serves as an effective skill of health emergency response professionals, and has gained more and more attention globally [1]. The advantage of risk assessment skills of public health emergency responders lies in the ability to identify and describe future events that can be mitigated or prevented by long-term and strategic risk reduction measures [2]. A series of preventive measures such as assessing the potential risk of. Public Health 2017, 14, 597; doi:10.3390/ijerph14060597 www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph
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