title: Public awareness of malaria in the middle stage of national malaria elimination programme. A cross-sectional survey in rural areas of malaria-endemic counties, China.
abstract: Remarkable progress in the elimination of malaria has been achieved by the Chinese government in the past 5 years. However, imported cases have increased rapidly, and it is a critical threat to the national malaria elimination programme. This study aims to investigate the current status of the public awareness of malaria in the middle stage of the national malaria elimination progress.
  
  
  
  A cross-sectional survey with multi-stage stratified randomized sampling was undertaken between June 2015 and March 2016. A total of 1321 residents from nine malaria-endemic counties, 27 townships and 81 villages were interviewed using a structured questionnaire.
  
  
  
  The results showed 51.6 % of the respondents had sufficient malaria knowledge. The malaria awareness of the public in type I counties was better than that in type II, whereas that in type III was the lowest. Approximately 74.9 % of the respondents were aware of at least one form of prevention of malaria, and 85.2 % of them would seek treatment when suffering from malaria. However, the awareness of fever, chills, sweating as common symptoms of malaria were 53.4, 56.2 and 31.6 %, respectively. The level of malaria awareness of the at-risk population was similar to that of the general population, it seemingly increased along with age and declined with the distance away from township hospitals.
  
  
  
  The public awareness of malaria needs to improve continuously. Health education campaigns should focus on basic malaria knowledge and cover target populations. The multi-sectoral or even international collaboration should be further intensified. Careful planning is required to ensure that scattered villages are incorporated into the malaria health promotion system to sustain elimination.
authors.affiliation: School of Medicine and Health Management, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science & Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Shangfeng
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.affiliation: Cancer Center, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Lu
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ji
authors.affiliation: School of Medicine and Health Management, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science & Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, People's Republic of China.|Bureau of Disease Prevention and Control, National Health and Family, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Tao
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.affiliation: University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK.
authors.forename: Ruoxi
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: School of Medicine and Health Management, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science & Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Hang
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Fu
authors.affiliation: School of Medicine and Health Management, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science & Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Tian
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Shao
authors.affiliation: School of Medicine and Health Management, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science & Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Chunyan
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: School of Medicine and Health Management, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science & Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Piaopiao
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Shao
authors.affiliation: School of Medicine and Health Management, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science & Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Zhe
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: He
authors.affiliation: School of Medicine and Health Management, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science & Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Gang
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: School of Medicine and Health Management, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science & Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, People's Republic of China. zcfeng@hust.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Zhanchun
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Feng
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002681:China; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D060740:Disease Eradication; D005260:Female; D006266:Health Education; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008288:Malaria / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000517:prevention & control*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011897:Random Allocation; D012424:Rural Population; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Awareness; China; Elimination; Knowledge; Malaria; Malaria health promotion