Survey on injury and KAP level of anti-frostbite among farmers during the snowstorm disaster in Ningbo of Zhejiang province, 2008

Objective　To investigate the injury status and knowledge-attitude-practice (KAP) level of anti-frostbite among the farmers in Ningbo during the snowstorm, 2008. Methods　A multi-stage random sampling was conducted to select the subjects, and the farmers selected were interviewed by face to face manner and completed a questionnaire. Results　During the snowstorm disaster, 132 unintentional injuries occurred with a incidence of 7.1%.The injuries from a fall and from traffic accident accounted for 90.9% and 5.3%, respectively, of the total injuries. The traffic ways and frequency of going out were the main risk factors of unintentional injury. Two hundred twenty-nine persons were frostbitten with the incidence of 12.3%, and 79.6% of farmers participated the snow sweeping, 65.7% of them reduced going out. The total awareness rate of the knowledge on self-protection during snowstorm disaster was 41.4% and that for frostbite recognizing was only 28.4%. Conclusion　The KAP level of ant-frostbite of the farmers in Ningbo was low, the health education on traffic safety and frostbite prevention should be strengthened among them, which should include hypertension patient as the priority population.