Objective  To examine the status quo and influencing factors of emergency knowledge among residents in Beijing and to provide evidences for improving emergency response capacity among the public.

  Methods  We conducted a face-to-face questionnaire survey among 11 052 residents selected with multistage random sampling in 16 districts or counties of Beijing between July and October 2015. Information on demographics and awareness of 6 dimensions of emergency knowledge were collected. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) and chi-square for univariate analysis and binary logistic regression for multivariate analysis were adopted in data analyses.

  Results  Among the 11 006 valid respondents, the knowledge scores were 0.76 ± 0.19 for digestive tract infectious disease, 0.76 ± 0.14 for natural disaster knowledge, 0.73 ± 0.21 for bird flu, 0.72 ± 0.34 for social events, 0.70 ± 0.14 for respiratory infectious disease, and 0.67 ± 0.16 for accident disaster, respectively. ANOVA results demonstrated significant differences in the scores for various dimensions of emergency knowledge among the respondents from various functional districts of Beijing. The results of multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that the respondents′ emergency knowledge scores were influenced by their residential region, age, education level, occupation, concern about local epidemic of infectious disease, and the frequency for having a discussion with family members on how to deal with a disaster event; the respondents from new urban development and ecological conservation development regions were likely to have a lower score compared to those from capital functional core region, with the odds ratio (OR) of 0.720 and 0.820; the respondents aged 18, 19 – 29, 50 – 59 and ≥ 60 years were likely to have a lower score compared to those aged 30 – 39 years, with the ORs of 0.426, 0.711, 0.627 and 0.560; the respondents with the education of senior high school/technical secondary school, junior college, and undergraduate were likely to have a higher score compared to those with the education of primary school and lower, with the ORs of 3.084, 3.791 and 4.600; the respondents being medical staff and technical personnel were likely to have a higher score than those being administers of government agency or enterprise and public institution, with the ORs of 2.561 and 1.709; the respondents reporting having concern and high concern about local epidemic of infectious disease were likely to have a higher score compared to those reporting not having concern about the epidemic, with the ORs of 1.346 and 1.762; and the respondents rarely and usually having a discussion with family members on how to deal with a disaster event were likely to have a higher score compared to those never having the discussion, with the ORs of 1.473 and 1.370, respectively.

  Conclusion  The awareness of emergency knowledge is influenced by residential region, age, education level, occupation, concern about local epidemic of infectious disease, and the frequency for having a discussion with family members on how to deal with a disaster event among the residents of Beijing. The emergency knowledge and management capacity should be improved in the public in Beijing.