Cracking the code of health security: unveiling the balanced indices through rank-ordered effect analysis

• Published in: BMC health services research Vol. 24; no. 1; pp. 27 - 14
• Main Authors: Zhu, Jianping, Wu, Qi, Zhang, Shiqi, Song, Boliang, Wang, Weiwei
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England BioMed Central Ltd 04.01.2024; BioMed Central; BMC
• Subjects: Balanced indices; China - epidemiology; Cities; COVID-19; Cross-country comparisons; Emergency preparedness and response; Epidemics; Health care; Health infrastructure; Health security; Health services administration; Health Status; Humans; Infectious diseases; Medical personnel; R&D; Research & development; Rural areas; Safety and security measures; Surveys and Questionnaires; China; Health security; Health infrastructure; Balanced indices; Emergency preparedness and response; Cross-country comparisons
• ISSN: 1472-6963; 1472-6963
• DOI: 10.1186/s12913-023-10503-w

Health security is a critical issue which involves multiple dimensions. It has received increasing attention in recent years, especially in China. In order to improve the national health level, China has made many efforts, such as the "Healthy China 2030" plan proposed several years ago. However, due to the complexity of its national conditions and the difficulty of index design, the results of these efforts are not significant. Therefore, it is necessary to construct a new measurement index system. Based on the questionnaire of "Health China 2030", we have collected a total of 3,000 participants from all 31 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities in China. We used statistical methods such as multiple correspondence analysis and rank-ordered effect analysis to process the data. The balance index is constructed by a series of actions such as weight division, order calculation and ranking. Through multiple correspondence analysis, we can find that there was a close relation in the correspondence space between the satisfaction degrees 1, 2, and 3, while a far distance from satisfaction degrees 4 and 5. There were four positive and four negative indices separately based on the average expected level and four clusters after ordinal rank cluster analysis. Generally speaking, there are no prominent discrepancies across gender and residential areas. We created and examined balanced indicators for health security in China based on the "Health China 2030" questionnaire. The findings of this study give insight into the overall situation of health security in China and indicate opportunities for improvement.