Abstract:
Objective To construct a warning indicator system for the control of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) epidemic.
Methods Based on literature study, group discussion and in-depth interviews with experts, we first established a framework and preliminarily selected indicators for a COVID-19 epidemic warning indicator system; then we conducted two rounds of consultation among 16 senior public health professionals to determine the indicators and their weight coefficients for the system using Delphi method and analytic hierarchy process (AHP) during August – September, 2020.
Results The constructed warning indicator system was consisted of 28 indexes related to 4 dimensions including infection source, transmission route, high risk population and control measure. The expert positive coefficient for the two rounds of consultation were 100% and 93.75%; the coefficient of expert authority was 0.882; and the coefficient of expert coordination was 0.32 and 0.41 for the first and the second round of consultation (both P < 0.01).
Conclusion A COVID-19 epidemic warning indicator system with explicit and attainable indexes was preliminarily constructed.