Outcome assessment of health education on drinking-water-borne endemic arsenic poisoning in Jiangsu province in 2010 / 中国地方病学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To evaluate the effect of health education on drinking-water-borne endemic arsenic poisoning in Jiangsu province in 2010.Methods Nine villages(townships) were selected from high-arsenic regions of Jiangsu province,and one primary school in each village(township) and one village from the 9 villages(townships)were selected as investigation points.Thirty pupils in the same class of grade 5 in each school,and 15 housewives in each village were chosen as research subjects.Referring to the health education questionnaire in Technique Scheme of Endemic Disease Prevention Granted by the Central Government in 2010,5 questions were selected.The reason,harm and prevention measures were reflected by the first,second and third questions.The way of knowledge acquisition and the situation of family drinking water were reflected by the forth and fifth questions.The awareness of prevention knowledge of drinking-water-borne endemic arsenic poisoning in pupils and housewives were investigated by calculating the awareness rate.Results Three hundred and nine pupils in the fifth grade and 144housewives were investigated in the baseline survey.Thenumber of response was 927 and 432,respectively; the number of correct answer was 537 and 234,respectively; the awareness rate was 57.93％(537/927) and 54.17％(234/432),respectively.Two hundred and seven pupils in the fifth grade and 135 housewives were investigated in the evaluation survey.The number of response was 810 and 405,respectively; the number of correct answer was 778 and 386,respectively; the awareness rate was 96.05％ (778/810) and 95.31％ (386/405),respectively.Conclusions Health knowledge of drinking-water-borne endemic arsenic poisoning has been improved among pupils and housewives in these areas.