title: Health education and promotion at the site of an emergency: experience from the Chinese Wenchuan earthquake response.
abstract: Theories and strategies of social mobilization, capacity building, mass and interpersonal communication, as well as risk communication and behavioral change were used to develop health education and promotion campaigns to decrease and prevent injuries and infectious diseases among the survivors of the Wenchuan earthquake in May 2008. We evaluated the effectiveness of the campaigns and short-term interventions using mixed-methods. The earthquake survivors' health knowledge, skills, and practice improved significantly with respect to injury protection, food and water safety, environmental and personal hygiene, and disease prevention. No infectious disease outbreaks were reported after the earthquake, and the epidemic level was lower than before the earthquake. After a short-term intervention among the students of Leigu Township Primary and Junior School, the proportion of those with personal hygiene increased from 59.7% to 98.3% (p< 0.01). Of the sampled survivors from Wenchuan County, 92.3% reported to have improved their health knowledge and 54.9% improved their health practice (p< 0.01). Thus, health education and promotion during public health emergencies such as earthquakes play an important role in preventing injuries and infectious diseases among survivors.
authors.affiliation: School of Public Health, Fudan University, Shanghai, China Chinese Center for Health Education, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Xiangyang
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Tian
authors.affiliation: School of Public Health, Fudan University, Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Genming
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: Chinese Association of Plastic and Aesthetic, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Dequan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Cao
authors.affiliation: Chinese National Institute of Parasitic Diseases, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Duoquan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, College of Public Health, East Tennessee State University, USA wangl2@etsu.edu.
authors.forename: Liang
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D057191:Capacity Building / Q000379:methods / Q000458:organization & administration; D002681:China; D003140:Communicable Disease Control / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards*; D003142:Communication; D004190:Disasters; D055866:Earthquakes; D006266:Health Education / Q000379:methods / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000592:standards; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000379:methods / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000592:standards; D006801:Humans; D006920:Hygiene / Q000193:education / Q000592:standards; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D020380:Needs Assessment; D019982:Organizational Case Studies; D017741:Survivors / Q000523:psychology*; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000517:prevention & control*
keywords: earthquake; emergency; evaluation; health education; health promotion