Abstract
BACKGROUND: Tuberculosis is a chronic infectious disease that endangers people's health, and China is a country with a high burden of tuberculosis. To accelerate the progress towards ending TB, the Chinese government implemented the End TB Action Plan (2019-2022), which consists of six actions. Among the End TB Action Plan, health promotion was conducted to improve the awareness of TB knowledge among Chinese people. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of implementing TB health promotion activities outlined in the End TB Action Plan, and to provide recommendations for future TB prevention and control plan. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted in nine Chinese provinces in 2022. A total of 11,920 Chinese people filled out the questionnaire. Logistic regression analysis was used to explore that overall awareness of TB core information is associated with whether they received TB health education. RESULTS: The study involved 11,920 Chinese participants. The overall awareness rate of the core information of TB was 84.2%, which does not reach the 85% goal of the End TB Action Plan. The single awareness rate that TB is a chronic infectious disease and that the vast majority of TB patients can be cured were 75.3% and 76.0%. Participants who received TB health education had a higher awareness rate of TB core information. Participants who were elderly, retired or had a primary school education or below had poor awareness of the core information of TB. Participants who were elderly, lived in urban areas, were equipment operators or had a primary school education or below received less TB health education. Participants mainly received TB health education through TV (44.6%) and Internet (37.8%), preferred TV, broadcasts or movies (58.9%) and Internet advertising (54.7%). Participants preferred illustrated (46.2%) and audio-visual (44.8%) advertising materials. The common sources used to answer health-related questions on the internet were We-Medias (48.3%) and search engines (38.9%). Participants preferred to use short-form videos (66.8%) and illustrations (53.1%) to answer health-related questions. CONCLUSIONS: Health promotion action for TB had a positive effect in China, but the awareness of TB was inadequate among Chinese people, and it is necessary to strengthen TB health education for those people. Moreover, TB prevention and control institutions should advertise TB more in audio-visual and illustrated forms on the Internet and audio-visual media. Health-related questions should be published in short-form video and illustrated forms in the We-Media and search engine more.