Development of Investigation and Dangerous Communicable Diseases Control Competency Indicators in the Communicable Disease Control Unit (CDCU), Health Region 7

Abstract

          The purpose of this study was to develop competency indicators related to investigation and dangerous communicable diseases control in The Communicable Disease Control Unit (CDCU), Health Region 7. Competency
indicators were developed by four steps as following. Step 1: The components and indicators were developed by
synthesizing literature review and research articles. The competencies consist of 4 components namely (i) knowledge (2 indicators), (ii) skill (4 indicators), (iii) ability of investigation and disease control (6 indicators), (iv) personal attributes (2 indicators). Step 2: The questionnaire was approved for content validity from five experts. The reliability value of the questionnaire was 0.94. Step 3: Totally, 236 participants in CDCUs were interviewed in order to examine the construct validity based on empirical data. Step 4: The construct validity or the goodness of fit of the model to the empirical data was measured by the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA).

          Most of 236 participants was female (66.9%) aged between 30–39 years (35.6%) technical public health officer (61.9%) and experience of disease control less than 10 years (63.2%). The CFA showed that the model was consistent with empirical data with the goodness of fit statistics. Result of CFA demonstrated that the factor loadings of 14 indicators displayed positive values, ranged between 0.553–0.886, with 0.01 level of significance for each indicator. Out of 14 indicators, three high standardized factor loading are skill of risk assessment, risk communication, ability of dangerous communicable diseases control. Standardized factor loading of 0.886, 0.862, 0.837 respectively, determination of 78.5%, 74.3%, 70.0% respectively.