Viewpoints of community committee workers on public health emergency management in urban communities: a Q methodology...

This study aimed to explore how community committee workers perceive public health emergency management capacity in urban communities and to identify structural weaknesses in current community-based emergency response systems.

A Q methodology was employed to systematically examine community committee workers' subjective viewpoints. A 35-statement Q set was developed based on semi-structured interviews and a literature review. Eighteen community committee workers were purposively recruited to rank these statements according to their level of agreement using a forced distribution ranging from -4 (strongly disagree) to +4 (strongly agree), followed by qualitative explanations of their rankings. Q-sort data were analyzed using Ken-Q Analysis to identify shared viewpoints.

Three distinct perspectives on community emergency management capacity were identified. Factor 1 emphasized resource support and coordinated execution, highlighting perceived constraints related to staffing, material support, and incentive mechanisms. Factor 2 focused on authority- and information-dependent response, reflecting participants' concerns about fragmented information sharing and limited coordination across administrative levels. Factor 3 centered on risk communication and vulnerable populations, underscoring community committee workers perceived challenges in risk prevention for the older adults.

Perceived limitations in community-level public health emergency management may be linked to structural misalignments within grassroots governance. These findings offer potential pathways for strengthening community emergency preparedness through resource support, coordinated information-sharing, and inclusive communication strategies.