title: Students' awareness of malaria at the beginning of national malaria elimination programme in China.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  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. 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.
  
  
  METHODS
  This 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.
  
  
  RESULTS
  More 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.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The 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.
authors.affiliation: National Institute of Parasitic Diseases, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Shanghai 200025, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Jian-hai
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Yin
authors.forename: Ru-bo
authors.initials: RB
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Zhi-gui
authors.initials: ZG
authors.lastname: Xia
authors.forename: Shui-sen
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: Xiao-nong
authors.initials: XN
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: Qing-feng
authors.initials: QF
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Xin-yu
authors.initials: XY
authors.lastname: Feng
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002681:China; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008288:Malaria / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000517:prevention & control; D008297:Male; D013334:Students; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires