Objective  To examine the awareness rate of mental health knowledge and its influence factors among urban residents in Wuhan city.

  Methods  Totally 2 400 permanent residents aged≥15 years were selected with stratified multi-stage random sampling in 12 communities in Wuhan city and surveyed with The Chinese Mental Health Knowledge Awareness Questionnaire between November and December 2015.

  Results  Among the participants, the awareness rate of mental health knowledge was 73.25%, with an average knowledge score of 14.65 ± 3.36 and a unsignificantly higher average score in the female participants than that in the male participants (14.75 ± 3.07 vs. 14.58 ± 2.86). The participants' mental health knowledge score differed significantly by residential region, age, education, occupation, monthly income, demand for the knowledge, and the main way to access the knowledge and higher knowledge scores were observed among the participants living in downtown areas (15.15 ± 3.12), aged 30 – 45 years (15.08 ± 3.23), with the education of undergraduate or above (15.70 ± 2.75), being employees of state-owned enterprise or public institutions (15.55 ± 3.41), with monthly household income of 7 001 to 10 000 RMB yuna (15.59 ± 3.04), reporting a great need for mental health knowledge (15.84 ± 3.17), and obtaining the knowledge mainly via internet (15.12 ± 3.08). Multivariate linear regression analysis showed that residential area, education, demand for knowledge and main way to access the knowledge were influence factors of mental health knowledge score.

  Conclusion  The awareness rate of mental health knowledge among urban residents of Wuhan city need to be improved, especially among those aged under 30 years, with low education, and obtaining the knowledge through traditional media.