Knowledge, attitude and behavior of public health emergency among university students

Objective To investigate the knowledge,attitude and behavior of public health emergency among university students during the H1N1 influenza epidemic and to provide scientific basis for health education in universities.Methods Stratified cluster sampling was used to recruit 1 195 university students of different majors and grades.Questionnaire regarding know ledge,attitude and behavior on public health emergency were answ ered by the students.Results The aw areness rate of public health emergency among the university students was 74.63% with a mean score of 74.63±12.27.There were significant differences in the awareness rate,scores of attitude and coping style between the students of different majors and grades (all P< 0.05).Moreover,the scores of knowledge were negatively correlated with the scores of attitude (r=-0.408,P<0.01),and were positively correlated with the active coping style (r=0.364,P< 0.01).Conclusion The awareness rate of public health emergency for the university students was relatively low and the behavior is closely correlated with the knowledge and attitude for public health emergency.Health education and propaganda on public health emergency should be strengthened among university students.