The impact of digital channels on public health services to enhance city resilience during the public health emergency response in Thailand (2020-2023).

Abstract

Background: This study examines the impact of digital channels on public health services and their role in enhancing city resilience.

Methods: Conducted in Thailand, this study employed an online questionnaire distributed in both Thai and English from December 2023 to February 2024. A total of 824 valid responses from Thai nationals and foreigners were analyzed. Exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and structural equation modeling were performed using IBM SPSS 23 and AMOS 23.

Results: Digital channels have a strong positive direct effect on public health services (β = 0.70, p < 0.001), public health services have a strong positive direct effect on resilient cities (β = 0.69, p < 0.001), and digital channels have a low positive direct and a moderate positive indirect effect on resilient cities (β = 0.19, p < 0.001, and β = 0.48, p < 0.001, respectively). The model demonstrated excellent fit with the empirical data: X²/df = 2.189, CFI = 0.954, GFI = 0.900, NFI = 0.919, TLI = 0.946, RMSEA = 0.038, and RMR = 0.047.

Conclusions: Digital channels are critical tools for collecting, analyzing, and disseminating public health service data. They improve public health services across five dimensions-product, facility, service, process, and price-while also strengthening city resilience in disaster management, economic stability, quality of life, and institutional capacity.