Public awareness and information sources of health publicity for three major infectious diseases in rural Zhejiang province, China

Introduction: Our study aimed to investigate the level of awareness and the information sources of health publicity of major infectious diseases in Zhejiang Province, southeast of China, and to examine the association between sociodemographic characteristics and the sources of health publicity for major infectious diseases. Methods: This cross-sectional study was carried out in Zhejiang province between December 2010 and April 2011. Participants were recruited from 36 villages and interviewed by doctors from the community health service using a structured questionnaire. Chi-square test and t-test were used for analytical evaluation. Results: The study sample consisted of 36,377 subjects aged 15 to 80 years old. It showed that knowledge of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) was adequate in 44.21% of rural residents; knowledge of tuberculosis (TB) was adequate in 52.66% of respondents; and knowledge of hepatitis B virus (HBV) was adequate in 60.18% of respondents. The percentage of participants having been exposed to health publicity related to HIV, TB and HBV over the past year was 87.89%, 88.71%, and 90.81%, respectively. Subjects with above senior high school education chose “newspapers or magazines” and “internet” most. Farmers were more likely to choose “television”, “posters or billboards”, and “broadcasts”. Subjects who were aware of knowledge for three infectious diseases tended to chose “television”, “posters or billboards”, “free publicity materials or handbills”, “newspapers or magazines”, and “internet”, but not “relatives or friends” and “broadcasts”. Conclusions: The level of public awareness of HIV, TB and HBV is still low among rural residents. The government could invest selectively on the information sources of health publicity which have greater potentials to inform audiences.