Effectiveness of risk communication and its influencing factors during an influenza epidemic in early 2018 in China

  Objective  To examine the satisfaction to risk communication and its main influencing factors in the public during an influenza epidemic in early 2018 in China and to provide references for improving the effectiveness of risk communication in health emergency response.

  Methods  An online survey was conducted among 2 960 net users in China during a period of influenza epidemic from January to March 2018. A questionnaire on the satisfaction to public health risk communication was designed and distributed via Wechat and QQ platform. Descriptive statistics, Chi-square test, and multivariate logistic regression were used in data analyses.

  Results  Valid information were collected from 2 796 respondents (45.71% males and 54.29% females) aged 18 – 78 years. Of the respondents, 70.92% reported being satisfied with the public health risk communication on the influenza epidemic but 29.08% reported unsatisfaction, with a significant difference (χ² = 340.69, P < 0.001). Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that the respondents with following characteristics were more likely to report the satisfaction to their perceived risk communication related to the epidemic: living in a rural region (odd ratio OR = 2.046), with an education of junior college and below (OR = 2.723), reporting a positive emotion (OR = 1.369), paying an attention to the influenza epidemic-related information (OR = 3.245), being confidence in governmental administration (OR = 1.894), being interactive with the information in new media (OR = 1.923), and searching for relevant information via new media (OR = 1.763).

  Conclusion  Government departments could make a full use of new media to improve the effectiveness of health risk communication in response to public health emergencies.