[Impact of self-efficacy on behaviors of contacting infested water among middle school students in Hubei Province].

OBJECTIVE

To explore the impact of self-efficacy on the behavior of contacting schistosome cercarial infested water among middle school students.

METHODS

In the transmission control area and endemic control area of the schistosomiasis endemic regions in Hubei Province, a total of 3 204 middle school students were selected through the stratified cluster random sampling method and investigated by questionnaires.

RESULTS

The incidence rates of contacting infested water with Oncomelania hupensis snails during the past 3 and 12 months among the middle school students were 11.4% (364/3 204) and 14.8% (474/3 204) respectively, while those of contacting indefinite infested water during the past 3 and 12 months were 23.8% (762/3 204) and 28.0% (898/3 204) respectively. The awareness rate of schistosomiasis prevention and control knowledge was 82.1% (2 631/3 204). There were "knowledge-practice separation"in the prevention and control of schistosomiasis among the middle school students. The correlation analysis and Logistic regression analysis showed that the self-efficacy of schistosomiasis protective behavior of middle school students was a protective factor for contacting with infested water, with the adjusted odds ratio values of 0.882, 0.886, 0.914 and 0.927.

CONCLUSIONS

Self-efficacy of schistosomiasis protective behavior is a protective factor for contacting with infested water among middle school students, and improving their self-efficacy may be an effective strategy to settle the problem of"knowledge-practice separation".