Abstract
Background: Policymakers must promote the development of public health education and human resources. As a feature of the political environment, public opinion is essential for policy-making, but virtually the attitudes of Chinese citizens toward human resources development in public health is unknown.Methods: This study conducted a crosssectional survey from February 4, 2021 to February 26, 2021 in China. We adopted a convenient sampling strategy to recruit participators. Participants filled out the questions, which assess the attitudes of the expanding public health professionals. A logistic regression analysis was given to identify the predictors associated with the attitudes of the subjects.Results: There were 2,361 residents who have finished our questionnaire. Chinese residents who lived in urban (OR = 1.293, 95% CI = 1.051–1.591), “themselves or relatives and friends have participated in relevant epidemic prevention work” (OR = 1.553, 95% CI = 1.160–2.079), “themselves or family members engaged in medical-related work” (OR = 1.468, 95% CI = 1.048–2.056), and those who “were aware of public health before the outbreak of COVID-19” (OR = 1.428, 95% CI = 1.125–1.812) were more likely to support the promotion of public health education and training.Conclusions: The present study found that 74.50% of Chinese citizens supported the promotion of public health education and training in China, in which economic status, personal perception, and comprehension are the crucial factors that influence public opinion. COVID-19 has aroused the attention of Chinese residents to public health education, with only 22.11% of residents being aware of public health before the outbreak of COVID-19. The COVID-19 pandemic has profound implications for human society. Literally, this impact will feed back into future public health policies based on public opinion. This innovative perspective will also help us better understand the potential social impact of COVID-19 on human resources and development for health in the modern world.
Highlights
Policymakers must promote the development of public health education and human resources
In the mixed-effect logistic regression analysis, Chinese residents who lived in urban (OR = 1.293, 95% CI = 1.051– 1.591), “themselves or relative or friend has participated in relevant work of prevention epidemic” (OR = 1.553, 95% CI = 1.160–2.079), “themselves or family member engaged in medicalrelated work” (OR = 1.468, 95% CI = 1.048–2.056), and “were aware of public health before the COVID-19 outbreak” (OR = 1.428, 95% CI = 1.125–1.812) were more likely to support the promotion of public health education and training (Table 3)
The results showed that for residents from Central China, “lived in urban” (Eastern China: OR = 1.951, 95% CI = 1.118–3.405), “has participated in relevant work of prevention epidemic” (Central China: OR = 1.560, 95% CI = 1.090–2.233), and “were aware of public health before the COVID-19 outbreak” (Central China: OR = 1.404, 95% CI = 1.045–1.887; Western China: OR = 1.831, 95% CI = 1.037–3.233) were the main factors associated with an increased willingness to support developing public health professionals (Table 4)
Summary
Policymakers must promote the development of public health education and human resources. China has experienced many sudden public health events characterized by rapid outbreak, wide spread, and serious damage, such as severe acute respiratory syndrome, the H1N1 flu epidemic, and the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID19). These epidemics posed an unprecedented threat to the physical and mental health of the population and to the stability and order of the society [1]. During the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020, China was faced with a noticeable shortage of public health professionals [3, 4]. In terms of educational level, more than half (54%) of the professionals engaged in public health only have the bachelor’s degree; just 7% of them have the master’s degree [6]
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