Awareness of key knowledge about tuberculosis and its major influencing factors among general population in Zhejiang province

Objective To explore the awareness status of knowledge about tuberculosis (TB) and its influencing factors among general population in Zhejiang province.Methods We conducted a household questionnaire survey on 5 items of core knowledge about TB among 6 532 urban and rural residents aged 12-65 years selected with stratified random sampling from 11 counties or districts in 11 municipalities in Zhejiang province between May and August 2014.SPSS 13.0 was adopted in data analysis.Results The average score for key knowledge about TB was 2.22±1.54 among all the participants and the scores were 2.41±1.53,2.49±1.45,2.49±1.51,2.33±1.57,2.07±1.52,and 1.95±1.49 for the participants aged 12-19,20-29,30-39,40-49,50-59,60-65 years,respectively,with a significant difference (F=21.820,P<0.001).The score differed among the participants by education level (the lowest1.54±1.45among the illiteracy or semi-illiteracy participants and the highest3.02±1.32among the participants with college educationF=105.529,P<0.001) and occupation (the highest4.02±1.00for medical workers and the lowest1.89±1.43for the unemployedF=26.950,P<0.001).The results of multivariate analyses revealed that the knowledge level was positively related to education level of the participants and the knowledge level was also influenced by familial income and occupation of the participants.The awareness rate was impacted by the ways of acquiring TB-related information,including newspaper,leaflet,television,bulletin board,and other active acquirement methods.Conclusion The awareness rate of key knowledge about TB is poor and mainly influenced by education,occupation,and ways of acquiring related information among general population in Zhejiang province.