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. 2017 Nov 23;17(1):895.
doi: 10.1186/s12889-017-4895-2.

"What do you know?"--knowledge among village doctors of lead poisoning in children in rural China

Ruixue Huang  1 , Huacheng Ning  1 , Carl R Baum  2 , Lei Chen  3 , Allen Hsiao  4
Affiliations

"What do you know?"--knowledge among village doctors of lead poisoning in children in rural China

Ruixue Huang et al. BMC Public Health. .

Abstract

Background: This study evaluates the extent of village doctors' knowledge of lead poisoning in children in rural China and assesses the characteristics associated with possessing accurate knowledge.

Methods: A cross-sectional, questionnaire-based survey of 297 village doctors in Fenghuang County, Hunan Province, China was conducted. All village doctors were interviewed face-to-face using a "What do you know" test questionnaire focusing on prevention strategies and lead sources in rural children.

Results: A total of 287 (96.6%) village doctors completed the survey in full. Most village doctors had an appropriate degree of general knowledge of lead poisoning; however, they had relatively poor knowledge of lead sources and prevention measures. Village doctors with an undergraduate level education scored an average of 2.7 points higher than those who had a junior college level education (p = 0.033). Village doctors with an annual income ≤ 10,000 RMB yuan scored 1.03 points lower than those whose income was >10,001 RMB yuan. Ethnic Han village doctors scored 1.12 points higher, on average, than ethnic Tujia village doctors (p = 0.027).

Conclusions: This study identified important gaps in knowledge concerning lead poisoning in children among a rural population of village doctors. There is a clear need for multifaceted interventions that target village doctors to improve their knowledge regarding lead poisoning in children. The "What do you know" questionnaire is a new tool to evaluate lead poisoning knowledge and education projects.

Keywords: Children; China; Lead poisoning; Village doctors.

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Conflict of interest statement

Ethics approval and consent to participate

The Ethics Committee of the Xiangya School of Public Health, Central South University, and The Yale Human Subjects Committee(IRB Protocol ID: 2,000,020,374) granted ethical approval for the study. Oral consent forms were speak to the participants before answering survey questions, and participants were informed that they could withdraw at any point. According to the YALE UNIVERSITY IRBs guidelines, in certain circumstances, the IRB may grant a waiver of documentation of consent, including the research doesn’t pose greater than minimal risk and a breach of confidentiality doesn’t constitute the principal risk to participants. Our study has obtained verbal consent and has approved by the YALE UNIVERSITY human investigation committee because the written informed consent can be waived per federal regulation 45 CFR 46.117(C).

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Location of Fenghuang county in Hunan Province, China
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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