Objective To investigate pneumoconiosis patients' awareness of the disease and their acceptance of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) treatment for pneumoconiosis, providing a basis for health education on pneumoconiosis and exploring the feasibility of TCM treatment for the disease.

Methods A total of 40 patients with stage Ⅰ, stage Ⅱ, and stage Ⅲ pneumoconiosis treated by Huaibei Occupational Disease Prevention and Control Hospital were selected as the investigation subjects by random sampling method. A self-designed questionnaire survey was done via telephone to collect general information about the subjects, their understanding of pneumoconiosis, and their acceptance of TCM treatment, followed by a multifactorial regression analysis of the influencing factors.

Results All 120 pneumoconiosis patients were male, and all were involved in coal mining dust exposure. It showed that the older the patient, the lower the educational level, and the longer the exposure, the higher the stage of pneumoconiosis (P < 0.05). The awareness rate of the causes and influencing factors of pneumoconiosis was 100%, and the awareness of symptoms was 80.8% (97 patients). The implementation rate of protective measures in engineering operations was 81.7% (98 people), and the implementation rate of personal protective measures and knowledge improvement was 78.3% (94 people). The overall acceptance rate of pneumoconiosis patients for TCM treatment was 23.4%, while the overall approval rate of TCM treatment was 54.2%. Multivariate linear regression analysis showed that compared to patients with primary school education, those with high school education had an increased total score for awareness of pneumoconiosis of 0.224 points (P < 0.05); university education level increased the acceptance rate of TCM treatment by 9.171% (P < 0.05) and the approval rate of TCM treatment by 40.212% (P < 0.01).

Conclusions There was a lack of awareness of pneumoconiosis symptoms among patients, and the rate of acceptance of TCM treatment was not high, but the degree of approval for TCM treatment was relatively high. Health education for the less educated patients and promotion of TCM treatment should be strengthened.