An investigation and analysis of demands on health knowledge in general population / 实用医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To understand the current status of health knowledge demands and its associated factors in general population. Methods A questionnaire-based survey by convenience sampling method was carried out in 700 subjects aged over 15 years old in October 2014. Information of demographics and health knowledge demands were collected. Data was analyzed using SPSS 17.0. Results A total of 653 subjects were responded, with a response rate of 93.3%. Respondents in male and female were 339 (51.9%) and 314 (48.1%) respectively. There were no differences among age , educational levels and self-reported health status between the two genders 86.6% of the participants showed that they had interests in health knowledge. Educational level and age were the factors associated with the interests. 65.8% and 72.3% of people want to get practical health knowledge of western and traditional Chinese medicine respectively. The top concern of health issues were cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. For preferred ways of learning health knowledge , television is the favorite one (44%), especially in elderly (over 63.8%). A relative high option rate was newspaper and magazine in all age groups. However, young people showed that they preferred the ways of the internet and Wechat (about 50%). For health disseminators, the participants in all age had greatest trust in experts in large hospitals (over 60%). The second option was retired old experts. The experienced patients were convinced in some degree and increased with age. Conclusions In future, health education in general population should considered the characteristics of the population and the applicability of knowledge. Besides , it is necessary to integrate traditional Chinese medicine with Western medicine, traditional media with new media, also authoritative experts and living example.