A preliminary validation of the public's emergency preparedness questionnaire for major emerging infectious diseases

Major emerging infectious diseases (MEIDs) have been considered as a pressing challenge to global public health. The world will face ongoing and increasing challenges posed by these diseases in the future. However, efficient emergency preparedness among the public could greatly reduce the risk of the spread of MEIDs. There is a scarcity of studies that evaluate the emergency preparedness of the public during MEIDs, which makes it difficult to clarify the emergency preparedness of the public during MEIDs. This study aims to validate the public's emergency preparedness questionnaire for MEIDs to assess the emergency preparedness of public during the outbreak of MEIDs.

The questionnaire was constructed through a literature review, the Delphi method, and the analytic hierarchy process. From March to July 2023, experts were invited to conduct the content validity of the questionnaire, and then a cross-sectional survey online and in person was conducted to evaluate the validity and reliability of the questionnaire. Internal consistency, split-half reliability and test-retest reliability were used to test the reliability. Exploratory factor analysis was used to measure the construct validity.

The final questionnaire is composed of 48 items and five factors (cooperating with prevention and control work, preparing knowledge and coping strategies, securing supplies and equipment, preparing economic resources, and maintaining physical and mental health), and adopted the 5-point scoring method. The cumulative contribution of variance was 50.864%. The internal consistency, split-half reliability and test-retest reliability of the questionnaire were 0.953, 0.834 and 0.900, respectively.

The developed questionnaire exhibits strong reliability and validity for assessing public emergency preparedness during major emerging infectious diseases (MEIDs). Based on these findings, we recommend enhancing public education, implementing supportive policies, fostering community engagement, improving resource accessibility, and providing health support to better prepare the public for future outbreaks, thereby strengthening global public health security.