Social Health Innovation and Emergency Preparedness in Universities: An Evaluation of Perceived Public Health Crisis Management Capacity in Guangxi, China

Qingyi Mai; Pimporn Thongmuang; Sarisak Soontornchai; Xiaoqiang  Qiu

doi:10.57260/csdj.2026.287786

Authors

Qingyi Mai Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University, Bangkok, Thailand
Pimporn Thongmuang Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University, Bangkok, Thailand
Sarisak Soontornchai Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University, Bangkok, Thailand
Xiaoqiang Qiu Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, China

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.57260/csdj.2026.287786

Keywords:

Social health innovation, University emergency management, Public health emergencies, Institutional capacity assessment, Guangxi higher education institutions

Abstract

This cross-sectional survey study developed and applied a multidimensional framework for evaluating the public health emergency management capacity of higher education institutions (HEIs) in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China. Social health innovation defined here as the coordinated reform of institutional governance, community health partnership and technology adoption provided the conceptual lens for indicator development. A five-dimension, 30-item indicator system was constructed through two rounds of Delphi consultation with seventeen experts (effective response rates 100.00% and 91.67%; expert authority coefficient 0.94). Kendall's coefficient of concordance was in round one and 0.306 in round two (both p < 0.01), indicating statistically significant but modest expert agreement. Between February and June 2025, structured questionnaires were distributed by convenience sampling to students and faculty at twenty HEIs, yielding 1,701 valid responses (institutional sample sizes 30–368). Capacity was measured as respondents' perceptions rather than through objective institutional audit. The entropy weight method (EWM) derived data-driven indicator weights reflecting between-institution variability, and the rank sum ratio (RSR) method with Probit-based grading ranked and classified institutions. Management and command system construction (28.19%) and prevention and emergency preparedness (26.63%) carried the largest entropy weights; perceived shortfalls were most pronounced in contingency plan updating, inter-departmental coordination and post-incident evaluation. Descriptively, vocational colleges scored higher overall than undergraduate universities, and science-engineering and public security institutions scored higher than medical and arts institutions; these comparisons were not tested inferentially. Probit grading classified 4 of the 20 institutions (20.00%) as high capacity, 13 (65.00%) as medium and 3 (15.00%) as low. On the basis of these findings the study proposes as an interpretive contribution rather than a validated intervention a social health innovation framework centred on flatter emergency governance, university–community health partnerships and technology-enhanced early warning. For policy, the results indicate that regional education and health authorities should weight institutionalised command mechanisms and preventive preparedness most heavily in HEI assessment standards, and direct targeted support to institutions in the low-capacity tier.

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