Study on knowledge, attitudes and behaviors regarding infectious diseases among Chinese people in 2002 / 中华流行病学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To describe knowledge, attitudes and behaviors on infectious diseases in different Chinese populations by their education levels, occupation and residential districts.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Data regarding awareness of the transmission routes and prevention strategies on hepatitis, sexually transmitted diseases (STD), acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) and prevalence rates on a) self-reported STD b) seeking treatment for STD c) source of knowledge on AIDS prevention, were calculated based on results from 17 questions of BRFS questionnaire by weight on age structures from 2000 census.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Most people realized that hepatitis, STD and AIDS were important issues in public health. However, their awareness on the transmission routes of these diseases was not satisfied. Moreover, due to the fear of these diseases, 27.6% and 30.1% of the people studied thought that shaking hands with STD patients and HIV carriers could get infected. 9.9% of the people reported that they ever used a condom during the past year. 2.2/1000 of the people reported that they had ever suffered from STD during the past 5 years, with 3.4/1000 in males, 0.9/1000 in females, 4.2/1000 in urban population and 1.6/1000 in rural population. Among these STD patients, 75.0% of them reported that they had ever received treatment in a STD clinic including 38.2% of them reporting that they had ever received treatment in private clinics without license, and 6.7% of them reported that they had ever treated by drugs bought by themselves. 47.0% of people reported that they had received health education materials or information on AIDS prevention from medical workers or through media. 12.1% of the people had been informed that condom use could prevent from STD and AIDS transmission.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The awareness on hepatitis, STD and AIDS was quite insufficient in the Chinese general population, especially in rural and western part of China. With the development of AIDS epidemic from people with high risk behavior to the general population, China will undertake tremendous disease burdens from AIDS in the future.</p>

Implementation of second prevention measures on chronic diseases in Chinese, 2002 / 中华流行病学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To describe the implementation of secondary prevention measures (blood pressure measure, test of blood lipid, and screening test for breast cancer and cervix uteri) on chronic diseases in different populations.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>The indicators on proportion of receiving blood pressure measurement, tests on blood lipid, screening of breast cancer and cervix uteri in research samples, as well as awareness of the risk of hypertension and hyper lipid were calculated based on results from 1BRFS questionnaire by weight on age structures from 2000 census.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>22% and 5% of people under research understood the risk of hypertension and hyper lipid on their health. In addition, proportion of receiving these screening tests in sample populations were low. Secondly, the main target population including females over 50 years old but the proportion of screening breast cancer among those females over 50 years old was lower than that in females over 25 years old. Besides educational, occupational and geographic factors, the types of medical insurance for people also were important factors affecting the proportion of receiving screening tests.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Screening tests were important second prevention measures for reducing severity of the diseases. Except blood pressure tests among people over 35 years old, proportions of receiving other screening tests were very low. There were significant differences of receiving these screening tests in people by education occupation, geographic areas and types of medical insurance. In addition, the policy of screening was not clear on target orientation. It is necessary for developing guideline of screening to guide the screening programs.</p>

Injury associated health risk factors in Chinese people, in 2002 / 中华流行病学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To describe the prevalence of injury associated health risk factors, especially traffic accident/suicide-associated health risk factors in different populations by education, occupation and districts.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>The indicators on traffic peccancy behavior and protective measures, storage of pesticide and micecide were calculated based on results from 13 questions of BRFS questionnaire by weight on age structures from 2000 census.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>36.7% pedestrians reported that they had traffic peccancy behavior in the past 30 days with 3.67% as always, 11.3% as sometimes and 21.7% as seldom. 30.3% bicycle riders reported that they had traffic peccancy behavior in the past 30 days. There were 13.2%, 11.4% and 16.9% auto-drivers reported ever having drunken driving, tired driving or driving without license. 7.7% drivers and riders always wore a safety belt. 19.1% motorcycle drivers and riders reported that they wore a crash helmet while riding. The traffic peccancy behavior in males, in rural area was more serious than in females and in urban areas. There were more families preserving pesticide and micecide in rural than in urban areas. 10% of these families did not have a good storage.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The traffic peccancy behavior was very serious, but the protective measures were not well conducted in China. The storage of pesticide and micecide was unsatifactory. The awareness on safety was insufficient in the general population, suggesting that it is of urgent importance to change people's improper behaviors through health education. It is also important to develop regulations to create supportive environment in reducing the deaths caused by injury.</p>

Smoking and passive smoking in Chinese, 2002 / 中华流行病学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To describe the prevalence of smoking, quitting smoke, and passive smoking in different populations by education status, occupation and geographic distribution.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Surveillance on risk behaviors in 145 disease surveillance points (DSP) was carried out in 2002 by multi-steps random sampling through questionnaires. 16,407 records had been completed with 16 056 used for analysis. Indicators as smoking, current smoking, average cigarettes smoked and the cost per day, etc., were calculated by weight on age proportions from the 2000 census.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Ever-smoking rates in males and females aged 15 and over were 66.0% and 3.1%, respectively with ever-smoking rate dropped 1.8% in whole population, but increased in people aged 15-24. The number of total smokers was about 350 million, 30 million more than that in 1996. There were no obvious geographic differences seen among male, but big difference was seen in female smokers. Higher smoking rates were seen in the northeast and northern parts of the country. Rate of quitting smoking was increasing, from 9.42% in 1996 to 11.5% in 2002, referring to an increase of 10 million quitters. However, the rate of no intention to quit among smokers was still very high--74%. The average cigarettes consumption per person-day was the same as that in 1996--14.8 cigarettes/day, which cost 2.73 RBM/day. The cost was various in different groups of population with a 15 times difference. The level of exposure for passive smokers was not improved. The prevalence of passive smoking in nonsmokers were 53% in 1996 and 52% in 2002. Knowledge on smoking and health condition in population had been greatly improved, but still poor in the western areas. 60% of the people claimed in supporting banning of smoking in public places, 45% supporting the banning of all cigarettes ads, but big difference was seen in different geographic areas.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The prevalence of smoking in Chinese males had reached its peak, leveling but had not yet obvious dropped. Communication on the knowledge of harm in smoking remained weak since people did not understand or support the strategies on tobacco control, especially in the western areas. Data indicated that the prevalence of tobacco use would not decrease over in short period and the disease burden caused by tobacco use would still be heavy in the next 30-50 years. The government and public health authorities should develop effective tobacco control in no time to decrease disease burden caused by smoking and passive smoking.</p>

Study on diet, physical activities and body mass index in Chinese population in 2002 / 中华流行病学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To describe the prevalence of behavior on diet, physical activities and body mass index (BMI) in different populations related to factors as education, occupation and geographical distribution.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Indicators including frequency of taking different foods, intake of cooking oil/fast foods, intensities of physical activities at work, proportion of taking physical exercises during the day, sedentary life style and BMI were calculated based on results from 17 questions of behavior risk factors surveillance (BRFS) questionnaire by weight on age structures from 2000 census.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Seventy percentage of the people took vegetable and 40 percent took fruits 5-7 days per week, and over 50 percent of them ate pork/beef/mutton but few of them ate beans and eggs. 25 percent of the people ate chicken/duck/fish/and shrimps 5-7 times per week but another 40 percent ate them only less then once per week. 70% of the people almost never drank milk or milk-products. 15 percent of them consumed sweet and greasy foods 3-7 days per week and 30 percent of them ate smoked food 3-7 days per week in the past 30 days. The proportions of food intake were different under different geographical regions, education levels and occupations. 11.7% of the sample population cooked mainly with animal oil, and 33% of the students had ever been to McDonald's. 11.7%, 20.5%, 44.7% and 23.0% of the subjects engaged in sedentary, light, moderate or heavy physical activities respectively. 18.04% of the subjects took part in physical exercises with different proportions by gender, occupation, education and geographical settings. 8.3% people were slim which was defined as having BMI lower than 18.5 kg/m(2). 68.0% of the people had a BMI as 18.5-23.9 kg/m(2). 23.7% of the subjects were being overweight which was defined as having BMI greater than 24 kg/m(2), among which 8.5% people with a BMI of 24-24.9 kg/m(2).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The prevalence of overweight and obesity will increase in the next 20-30 years, with the habits of taking more foods with high fat and energy but with less physical activities and keeping the idea as "fattier makes happier". Priorities should be given to changing the diet habit, avoiding over-intake of high fat and high energy plus increasing physical activities through publicity of knowledge on health, policy enforcement and development of supportive environment.</p>

Survey on injury in four rural communities in China / 中华流行病学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To understand the incidence and prevalence by causes of injury, and the proportion of different causes of deaths, as well as occurrence of disability due to injuries.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>200,000 families were randomly sampled in 4 rural communities. Questionnaire on occurrence, disability, death of injury and related risk factors for all family members living at home from Feb. 12, 2002 to Aug. 12, 2002 were studied.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The incidence rate and prevalence rate in the observed population were 65.1/1000 and 69.2/1000, respectively. In every 100 cases of injury there were one death and 6 disabled. Fall, animal bites, striking or crushing, cutting and piercing, road accidents, fire and poisoning were the common causes in injury. Animal bites was the leading cause while drawing appeared the highest in children aged 0 - 14. Rate of road accident was the highest in adults aged 15 - 34, while falls causing higher proportion of disability in population aged over 60.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>Based on the report of National Disease Surveillance Points System, there were 592,000 death cases of injury in Chinese rural areas every year, meaning 59.2 million cases of injury and 3,490,000 disabled cases every year. Since injury causes serious social and economic loss with different orders of incidence and mortality, it is necessary to develop different preventive strategies on different target populations and different causes accordingly.</p>

Comparison of data population-based and from hospital-based injuries / 中华流行病学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To compare data from an epidemiological survey on injuries with a survey conducted in hospitals on injuries in the same areas and to find out the differences and shortcomings of hospital data in describing the feature of injuries in an area.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Comparing the causes and age distributions of injuries from the two surveys.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The first 4 leading causes of injuries from the population-based survey were mechanical injuries, falls, burns/scalds and traffic accidents while the first 4 leading causes of hospital-based survey were traffic accidents, assault, mechanical injuries and burns/scalds. The differences of the age distributions of these leading causes between the two surveys were significant except mechanical injuries.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Differences were noticed between population-based survey and hospital-based survey. It should be cautions when using hospital data to describe the features of injuries in a certain area.</p>