Demand for information on emerging and reemerging infectious diseases among grassroots doctors and rural residents in Henan province

Objective To study the demand and accessible source for information on emerging and reemerging infectious diseases(ERI) under different epidemic scenarios among grassroots doctors and rural residents.Methods A questionnaire survey on demand and accessible source for information on ERI was conducted among 720 rural residents aged 15 years and older and 150 doctors working in village clinics and township health centers selected with stratified random cluster sampling and convenient sampling from Luanchuang,Xixia,and Luyi county of Henan province between January and February 2015.Epi Data 3.0 and SAS 9.2 were used in data process and analyses.Results Among the 140 grassroots doctors and 652 rural residents with eligible response,only 31.06% and 5.87% reported the concern on epidemic of ERI.Prevention and control measures and prevalent characteristics were the top two aspects of information on ERI required by the grassroots doctors(44.03% and 41.04%) and rural residents(51.14% and 28.10%).There were 62.96% of grassroots doctors and 53.66% of rural residents considering newspaper,radio and television as the most accessible source for getting information on ERI.There were significant differences in the necessity to get information on ERI,the most required knowledge,and the most accessible source for the information between the grassroots doctors and rural residents(P<0.05 for all).The necessity to get ERI information and the most required knowledge among the grassroots doctors and rural residents varied along with the simulated epidemic scenarios of ERI and were influenced interactively by the simulated epidemic scenarios of ERI and whether being a medical personnel(P<0.001).Conclusion The demand for information on ERI is different under various epidemic scenarios and between grassroots doctors and rural residents,and the differences should be considered by government agencies when implementing education programs on ERI.