Objective  To assess infectious disease-related knowledge, behaviors and skills among urban Lhasa residents with different educational levels and to provide evidences for implementing relevant health education programs.

  Methods  With multistage sampling, a total of 1 415 residents aged 18 years or elder in urban Lahsa were surveyed face-to-face with a questionnaire to assess the knowledge and behaviors about infectious diseases.

  Results  Of the participants, 52.1% were illiterate or semi-illiterate and 25.2% had the education of primary school. The awareness rate of infectious disease-related knowledge increased significantly with education level among the participants (P < 0.05). Low awareness rates for transmission route of hepatitis B virus (4.6%), transmission route of human immunodeficiency virus (9.9%), normal body temperature (10.1%), and transmission route of hepatitis A virus (18.1%) were reported by the participants. The self-reported frequencies of infectious disease prevention behaviors increased significantly with education level among the participants (P < 0.05), except for the behaviors of the limiting contact with colleagues or classmates when having flu-like symptoms, separating raw and cooked food when processing food, and paying attention to hygienic condition when dining out. Low proportions of the participants reported infectious disease prevention behaviors as having vaccine inoculation when being scratched or bitten by a cat (27.8%), having physical exercise 3 times or more during previous one week (28.8%), and paying attention to information relevant to epidemics when going on a journey (32.2%).

  Conclusion  The awareness of health knowledge and prevalence of health behaviors related to infectious disease prevention are relatively low among adult residents in urban Lhasa, especially among the residents with low education; the results suggest that health education needs to be promoted among the population.