Key issues in health emergency risk communication: a screening analysis with TOPSIS method

  Objective  To explore key problems in public health emergency risk communication in China.

  Methods  We conducted a literature research on key issues in public health emergency related risk communication nowadays in China and discriminated 32 secondary issues according to analyses based on Lasswell's 5w communication model (who, says what, in which channel, to whom, and with what effect). Then we carried out an expert consultation on the significance and intervention-related urgency of the issues among 32 health emergency specialists recruited in 27 provinces and municipalities across China in July 2017. We analyzed the data collected with technique for order performance by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) using Microsoft Excel software.

  Results  The results of TOPSIS analyses demonstrated that among the dimensions of the risk communication, the criterion index (Ci) value of communication effect ranked the first (0.833), followed by communication channel (0.831), communication audience (0.813), and communicator (0.698). There were two secondary issues (ranking the 3rd and 6th of all secondary issues) under the communication effect dimension, two secondary issues (ranking 1st and 2nd) under the communication channel dimension, two secondary issues (ranking 4th and 9th) under the communication audience dimension, and four secondary issues (ranking 5th, 7th, 8th, and 10th) under the communication communicator dimension, respectively.

  Conclusion  Supervision and management on media, especially on new media, assessment on communication efficiency, and targeted communication with audiences need to be strengthened for improving health emergency risk communication among the public.