Objective  To explore the awareness on disability prevention among the public and to provide references for promoting health education on disability prevention.

  Methods  With stratified cluster and convenience sampling and a self-designed questionnaire, we conducted a survey among 1 119 adult citizens (≥ 18 years old) recruited in three urban municipal regions of Shandong province during July – October, 2018.

  Results  The top three disabilities being noticed among the respondents were physical (enumerated by 90.4% of the respondents), hearing (84.7%), and visual disability (80.5%) and the most concerned cause of disabilities was genetic diseases and acquired dysplasia (listed by 92.3% of the respondents). Of the respondents, 75.2% thought that most of disabilities were preventable and controllable; 83.4% did not think that measures for disability prevention were primarily implemented among healthy populations; 86.1% considered that the risk of disability existed over an individual′s life time; 78.6% regarded that disability prevention was mainly referred to controlling birth defects through prenatal examination and other means; and 62.3% reported being aware of the tertiary prevention of disability and 46.8% reported taking purposive measures to prevent disability ordinarily. Among the respondents, 38.4% were satisfied to the level of their disability-related knowledge; 44.0% had active searching for disability-related information; 79.1% expressed their desire to acquire more knowledge about disability prevention; 29.3% had received disability-related health education; and 17.9% had heard of the National Day of Disability Prevention, respectively.

  Conclusion  The urban adult citizens in Shandong province are lack of sufficient knowledge on disability and its prevention, suggesting that health education on disability prevention is needed among the population urgently.