Effect of health education on coping with typhoon hazard among residents in Zhejiang province

ObjectiveTo examine the status and influencing factors of knowledge and skills about coping with typhoon hazard and to evaluate the effect of health education on coping with typhoon hazard among community residents. MethodsWith multi-stage cluster random sampling,a questionnaire survey was conducted among residents aged 15-69 years before and after a health education. ResultsThe percentage of awareness of knowledge about typhoon increased from 74.13% to 79.37% after the education.The residents with high education level,high household income,and experience of typhoon were more likely to have typhoon related knowledge and coping skill easily.Among 5 variables for knowledge about preparing against a typhoon,3 variables were improved significantly after the education (P<0.05).Among 6 variables for knowledge about measures against hazard during a typhoon process,4 variables were improved significantly after the education(P<0.05).Before the education,three major route for getting information on coping typhoon were television (84.9%),newspapers or magazines (58.2%),and posters/promotion materials (45.9%),while after the education,the three major routes were television (89.4%),newspapers or magazines (57.8%),and internet (44.2%). ConclusionThe health education on coping typhoon hazard can effectively improve the skill against the hazard among community residents.