Parental knowledge on measles and its influencing factors in China

Objective To examine the knowledge level of measles and its influencing factors among parents,and to provide information for measles control and eradication.Methods Totally 3 609 parents of 1-6 years old children from 6 provinces were selected with random cluster sampling and interviewed during August to September in 2011.Results The overall good cognition rate of the parents was 87.4%(2 949/3 374).The good recognition rates were 94.9%(1 075/1 133),87%(988/1 105),and 80.8%(886/1 105)for the parents from eastern,central,and western region of China.The good recognition rates for the parents from city and rural were 91.3%(728/797)and 86.2%(2 221/2 577).Difference test showed that parental knowledge disparities between urban and rural,living area,gender,education groups,occupation and income groups were statistically significant(P<0.05 for all).The difference in parental knowledge between age groups was also statistically significant(χ²,P=0.011);with the increase of age,the knowledge on measles decreased.The results of logistic regression analysis showed that living area,gender,education,and living in centralarea were influencing factors for parental knowledge on measles.ConclusionMore attention should be paid to infectious diseases related health education for people living in western and central regions of China,rural areas and those economy vulnerable and with low education.