Impact of digital device utilization on public health surveillance to enhance city resilience during the public health emergency response: A case study of SARS-CoV-2 response in Thailand (2020-2023).

OBJECTIVE

This study aims to examine the impact of digital devices on public health surveillance, the impact of public health surveillance on resilient cities, and the impact of digital devices on resilient cities.

METHODS

Questionnaires were issued to residents of Thailand during the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 response (2020-2023). In total, 1025 valid responses were recorded from Thai nationals and expatriates. Exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and structural equation modeling were used to assess the model through IBM SPSS 23 and AMOS 23.

RESULTS

Digital devices have a strong positive direct effect on public health surveillance ( = 0.73,  ≤ .001), public health surveillance has a strong positive direct effect on resilient cities ( = 0.79,  ≤ .001), and digital devices have a low positive direct and a moderate indirect effect on resilient cities ( = 0.13,  ≤ .001, and  = 0.58,  ≤ .001, respectively). The use of digital devices in data collection, analysis, and dissemination, positively impacted public health surveillance, considering five dimensions: medical and vaccine, individual, health care, epidemiological, and disease. Meanwhile, using digital devices in public health surveillance positively impacted the resilience of cities, considering three dimensions: socioeconomic, institutional, and living. The causal relationship model of the digital device utilization on public health surveillance enhancing the resilience of the cities met all the necessary criteria: / = 2.802, comparative fit index = 0.953, goodness of fit index = 0.901, normed fit index = 0.935, Tucker-Lewis index = 0.935, root mean square of approximation = 0.048, and root of mean square residual = 0.043. This indicates the model fits the empirical data.

CONCLUSION

Digital devices are vital tools in collecting, analyzing, and disseminating public health surveillance-related data during the public health emergency. This, in turn, can improve medical and vaccine, individual, health care, epidemiological, and disease surveillance, and also enhance cities' socioeconomic, institutional, and living resilience.