Abstract
BackgroundIn the battle against malaria in China, the rate of elementary and high school students’ awareness on malaria knowledge is an important index for malaria elimination, but only rare data is available. This study aimed to investigate the level of malaria awareness in students at elementary and high schools in malaria endemic areas of China, and to provide the baseline information for the malaria elimination.MethodsThis cross-sectional survey was conducted in 20 different malaria-endemic provinces in the first year of China’s National Malaria Elimination Programme (NMEP). A structured questionnaire was administrated to students at elementary and high schools enrolled. A total of 44,519 questionnaires were effective while 1,220 were excluded because of incomplete survey responses.ResultsMore than 60% of students were aware of malaria, but only 9,013 of them answered correctly to all five questions, and there were still 1,862 students unaware of malaria. There were significant differences of the awareness of malaria among different age groups, between male and female, between two different education levels.DiscussionThe study reveals that students at elementary and high school levels did not have adequate knowledge of malaria about biology, pathogenicity, transmitting vectors and preventive methods and so on at the beginning of NMEP in China. Further emphasis should be paid on health education campaigns in China to increase students’ public awareness of malaria about vector control, treatment, prevention.
Highlights
In the battle against malaria in China, the rate of elementary and high school students’ awareness on malaria knowledge is an important index for malaria elimination, but only rare data is available
Malaria awareness campaigns are often restricted to providing information at health posts, and not readily available to students at primary and high school levels
The study population was obtained from students at elementary and high schools from malaria-endemic counties in 20 provinces in China using multistage cluster sampling
Summary
In the battle against malaria in China, the rate of elementary and high school students’ awareness on malaria knowledge is an important index for malaria elimination, but only rare data is available. In the battle against malaria, in malaria awareness campaigns are often restricted to providing information at health posts, and not readily available to students at primary and high school levels. These campaigns are usually aimed at informing people about vector control activities, and to motivate people to make use of the provided control measures such as spraying insecticide indoors, with little focus on actions that individual community members can take to help themselves, but to help the overall effectiveness of the local malaria control interventions [3]. Health education through schools can help promote a community-wide understanding of malaria and the need for control and can create a demand for health services to provide universal access to affordable and appropriate treatment [4,5]
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