A cross-sectional survey of epidemiology workforce performance and its influencing factors during the emergency response to the COVID-19 pandemic in Guangdong, China

Abstract Background The epidemiology workforce contributes a lot to the response to COVID-19(Corona Virus Disease 2019) pandemic. Here this study focuses on the self-evaluation of the epidemiology workforce’s capacity and their impression of the cases they interviewed during the emergency response of the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods This study was a cross-sectional, anonymous survey conducted in Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Foshan, Dongguan and Zhuhai in Guangdong province. Data collection was performed between December 5, 2020 and December 22, 2020 through convenient sampling. A total of 596 epidemiology workforce participated in this study. Results Role in the team, professional title, gender, perceived social support, enough COVID-19 related training as well as experience were significantly associated with personal skills. 72.8% (429/589) and 86.3% (164/190) of participants reported they had interviewed uncooperative Chinese and foreign COVID-19 patients, respectively. Conclusions Epidemiology workforce needs enough training and experience to perform better in the investigation. Uncooperative patients were a big obstruction during the emergency response of the COVID-19 pandemic. Our results suggest Chinese experience and strategies focusing on the improvement of the public health emergency management system, including establishing Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism, enhancing training and the like.