Awareness rate of core information about tuberculosis prevention and treatment in Hubei, 2022

  Objective  To analyze the public awareness of the core information of tuberculosis (TB) prevention and treatment in Hubei province since the implementation of the Stop TB Action Plan (2019–2022), and assess the public demand for TB health education in the new era.

  Methods  based on urban and rural area stratification and Probability Proportionate to Size Sampling principle, multistage stratified random sampling was conducted to select 1440 local residents for a face-to-face survey using a uniform questionnaire. Excel 2016 was used for descriptive analysis, SPSS 25.0 was used for χ² test and binary logistics regression analysis.

  Results  The total awareness rate of core information of TB prevention and treatment in Hubei was 80.12%. The overall awareness rate was 52.92%. The awareness rate of core information 5 that most TB can be cured was lowest (72.39%). Univariate analysis showed that there were significant differences in the overall awareness rate among the subjects in different age, education level and occupation groups as well as those who received health education or not (χ²=55.442, 65.148, 96.958, 109.426, all P＜0.001), there was no significant difference in overall awareness rate between men and women and between urban residents and rural residents. Multivariate analysis showed that the overall awareness rates in the people with education level of primary school or below and occupation of business/service, agricultural workers, retirees and others (organs/institutions/enterprises as control), or those who received no health education were low (P<0.05). Up to 80.17% of the respondents had received health education about TB. Doctor’s advice was more likely to be accepted by the public (51.55%). Illustrated materials were more acceptable, and more health education materials in Internet were from We-Media.

  Conclusion  It is necessary to strengthen the health education in people with primary education level or below, people being engaged in business/service, agriculture workers, and retirees by using more health education channels, including We-Media, to further improve public awareness of TB prevention and treatment in Hubei.