Establishment and evaluation on reliability and validity of public risk perception scale for public health emergencies

  Objective  To develop a public risk perception scale for public health emergencies and to evaluate its reliability and validity.

  Methods  We established a theoretical framework and dimensions of the scale based on literature researches and interviews to 25 experts and developed items for the established dimensions. Then, we conducted an online survey among 1 082 internet users randomly recruited all over China during an influenza epidemic season in January 2018. The items of the scale were analyzed and screened using 6 statistical methods. We adopted confirmatory factor analysis to evaluate the validity and Cronbach′s α and split-half reliability to test the reliability of the scale.

  Results  In the scale finally developed, there were 10 items for four dimensions (the severity, the controllability, the health impact severity, and the prevalence possibility of an epidemic), with an overall cumulative contribution rate of 67.963%. The results of confirmatory factor analysis showed that all the tests were in the standard range (χ²/degree of freedom = 2.715, root mean square residual RMR = 0.076, root mean square error approximation RMSEA = 0.047). The Cronbach′s α coefficient was 0.885 for homogeneity reliability and 0.844 for split-half reliability of the whole scale. The correlation coefficients between the total score of the scale and the dimensions′scores ranged 0.735 – 0.877 (P < 0.01 for all).

  Conclusion  The public risk perception scale for public health emergencies was preliminarily developed and the structure of the scale is reasonable.