Construction of a multi-dimensional health evaluation index system for occupational population from the perspective of health ecology: A Delphi study

Abstract Background The health status of occupational population is very critical to the development of countries and regions as the main force of social and economic development. However, there is a dearth of comprehensive and systematic indicators to evaluate for the health of occupational groups at present. This paper aims to construct a multi-dimensional evaluation index system for occupational population. methods This study combined literature review and initially established a multidimensional health system framework for occupational population based on health ecology theory, and then used two rounds of Delphi expert consultation to construct the final multidimensional health index system for occupational population. The study selected 15 experts in related fields for two rounds of Delphi expert consultation. The index selection criteria were the average importance score >4 and the coefficient of variation <0.25. Results The recovery rates of the two rounds of expert questionnaires were 100.00% and 93.33% respectively, the expert authority coefficient were 0.90, and the Kendall’s coordination coefficients of the first and second level indexes were 0.32 and 0.42 ( P ≥ 0. 001). The final index system includes 4 primary indicators (individual characteristics, health knowledge, health behavior and health skills), 13 second-level indicators and 41 third-level indicators.The weight coefficients of the four primary health dimensions are relatively close, and the "health knowledge" is slightly higher. Conclusions The multi-dimensional health index system of occupational population established in this study is comprehensive, reliable and reasonable, and can be used as a reference tool for comprehensive evaluation of health status of general occupational population.