[Awareness on SARS and public health emergencies among general publics].
OBJECTIVE
To explore the awareness on sever acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and public health emergencies among general publics.


METHODS
A cluster sampling method was implemented in Harbin and Jiagedaqi district of Daxinanling of Heilongjiang province. Research subjects were divided into three groups as city, township and rural areas and were given questionnaires to fill in. Data was analyzed with Epi-data and SPSS.


RESULTS
2003 available questionnaires were collected. The general publics well understood the knowledge on public health emergencies and the SARS with the whole recognition rate more than 60 percent. During the epidemics, people in city, town and countryside were calm (71.7%). The rates of attitude towards the government were significantly different among the subjects living with the city, town or rural areas. The city group expressed the highest favor to the government and media, 71.8% of them gave the credit on the control of SARS to the effective method taken by the government and 65.0% of them showed that they had enough confidence on the governmental ability of dealing with crises while the countryside group trusted the hospitals and relative specialists the most.


CONCLUSIONS
It is essential for the government to interact and communicate with the publics through media, medical and related institutions when confronting with the public health emergencies. Publicity on health knowledge and coping system on emergency should play key roles in the development of an effective public health system while the government should lead the battle.
Wang
Shuo
S
School of Public Health, Harbin Medical University, Harbin 150081, China.
Wang
Bin-you
BY
Peng
Chong
C
Song
Cui-ping
CP
Zhang
Hong-xia
HX
Sun
Dian-jun
DJ
Li
Wei-wei
WW
Zhao
Ya-shuang
YS
Tian
Wenjing
W
Wei
Shu-zhen
SZ
Liu
Sheng-yuan
SY
D002681:China; D003625:Data Collection; D004630:Emergencies; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D011634:Public Health; D012424:Rural Population; D045169:Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome; D014505:Urban Population