Investigation of public awareness of core knowledge about tuberculosis prevention and control in Guiyang, Guizhou, 2021

Objective To understand the awareness level of core knowledge about tuberculosis (TB) prevention and control in general population in Guiyang in the 13^th Five-Year Plan period, evaluate the effectiveness of health promotion and provide scientific evidence for the development of more effective health promotion and health education measures for TB prevention and control in the 14^th Five-Year Plan period.

Methods Local residents aged ≥15 years from 110 survey points were selected through a proportional stratified cluster random sampling, and they were interviewed by using the unified questionnaire. Effect indicators include the overall and the single awareness rate of the key information, the data were analyzed with χ² test．

Results A total of 3 440 local residents were selected for this survey, and 3 439 were actually investigated. The awareness rate of 5 key messages of TB prevention and treatment was 76.67%, the awareness rates of “pulmonary TB is a serious chronic communicable disease”, “TB transmission route”, “TB symptom”, “TB preventive measures” and “TB prognosis” were 60.51%, 87.87%, 88.95%, 83.28% and 62.69%. The overall awareness rates in the residents aged over 66 years (71.24%), illiterate and semi-illiterate (60.43%), and agricultural workers (71.64%) were relatively low. Watching TV was the main way for the public (66.66%) in Guiyang to receive health education, followed by reading advocacy board (47.62%) and reading health promotion material (44.88%). In the residents surveyed, 54.90% want to receive health education about TB prevention and control from radio or TV programs and/film/audio-visual materials, and 40.88% hoped the advices from doctors.

Conclusion In 2021, the public awareness rate of the core knowledge about TB prevention and treatment showed increase in residents in Guiyang, but it didn’t reach the target of TB prevention and control in “13^th Five-Year Plan” of China. In the future, the target population should be more accurately identified, and new forms of health education should be carried out for key populations, such as men, the elderly, illiterate or semi-illiterate and agricultural workers, with emphasis on strengthening the health education about the hazards, preventive measures and prognosis of TB.