Purpose: The purpose of this study was to describe the health behaviors of earthquake victims related to gastrointestinal and respiratory infectious diseases in the centralized transitional earthquake resettlement sites in Wenchuan, China; and to identify key factors related to health behaviors that may inform local infectious diseases prevention and control strategies.
Methods: Data were collected using a questionnaire that included questions about socio-demographic characteristics and health beliefs and behaviors. In total, 1411 participants were included through a two-stage random sampling strategy. A bivariate multilevel model was used to explore the related factors.
Results: Approximately 67% of the participants wash their hands after going to lavatories every time, and 87% felt uncomfortable spitting on the ground. The more the participants perceived their susceptibility to and the severity of infectious diseases, the better their health-related behaviors (P < 0.05). Both health-related behaviors were influenced by communication modes of health education (P = 0.01) and socio-demographic characteristics. There was heterogeneity of health-related behaviors among different resettlement sites (P < 0.01).
Conclusions: Health education intervention, based on the Health Belief Model, is one of the main preventative strategies that should be implemented to inspire self-efficacy and to enhance better health-related behaviors among earthquake victims. Appropriate health education communication modes should be considered among different resettlement sites.
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