Effects of intervention on knowledge about major infectious diseases among residents in pastoral areas of Inner Mongolia

Objective To evaluate the effects of intervention on knowledge about major infectious diseases among residents in pastoral areas of Inner Mongolia and to provide a basis for developing health education intervention strategy for infectious diseases in pastoral areas.Methods Surveys were conducted among 1 022 residents in Inner Mongolia before and after an intervention programme with multistage stratified random sampling.Results After the intervention,the awareness rate of knowledge about brucellosis,tuberculosis(TB) and hepatitis B were improved from 69.0%,82.0% and 48.6% to 52.7%,82.9% and 63.8% and the awareness rates of knowledge about brucellosis and hepatitis B were improved significantly after the intervention(P<0.001);however,there was no difference in the awareness rate of knowledge about TB.The awareness rate of knowledge about brucellosis and hepatitis B were improved significantly among the residents of different age and education level(P<0.01 or P<0.001).The increasing rate the of awareness among the residents aged 40-54 years and being illiterate were the biggest,with the increased rates from 29.4% and 48.0% to 59.8% and 63.8%,respectively.Both before and after the intervention,there was a trend for the awareness rate increasing with educational level,but the extent of the increase decreased with educational level after the intervention.Conclusion Comprehensive intervention can improve the knowledge about brucellosis and hepatitis B prevention among the residents in pastoral areas effectively,especially in populations of middle-aged and with low education.