Objective: To understand the current situation of knowledge on healthy life style among 'typical' community residents in Beijing.
Methods: In 2004 and 2005,1765 permanent residents above 15 years old from 600 families living in the 'typical' communities since 2000, were selected to provide baseline data from answering the 'Beijing Typical Community Resident Questionnaire' designed by the local researchers. Data on the knowledge of healthy life style including healthy behavior,general status on health, physical activity and the use of sports facilities were gathered. In 2006, same questionnaire was used to compare with the previous data.
Results: The percentage of overall knowledge on health among permanent residents from those 'typical' communities in 2006 was higher than those in the baseline study. The percentage of people who were aware of knowledge on "no-smoking", "intake less salt", "maintaining healthy diet program" and "insisting on exercise" were 72.97%, 93.11%, 86.58% and 87.25% respectively in 2006, higher than 67.38%, 89.74%, 82.12% and 82.78% during the baseline (P < 0.01) study in the previous years. The percentage of correct answer about the healthy life style as diet and prevention of common diseases was higher among the permanent residents than those of temporary residents in 2006 (P < 0.05). The sources of health-related knowledge were mainly from media, newspapers and through health education programs carried out in the community.
Conclusion: The Beijing municipal government and the community residential committees attached great importance to providing knowledge on healthy life style to the 'typical' communities which had led to a higher statistics than previous years.