Objective: The objective of the study was to assess knowledge about three selected common childhood non-contagious diseases among preschool teachers in Hong Kong.

Methods: A descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted among preschool teachers in Hong Kong in August to October 2020. A self-administered questionnaire was distributed to preschool teachers through convenience sampling to determine their knowledge of three non-contagious diseases that are common in preschool children, including eczema, asthma, and dental pain. Questionnaire was based on Likert scale. A total of 174 teachers answered the questionnaires, of which 113 questionnaires (64.9%) were completed and used for data analysis. Most of the teachers were female (91.2%). Data analysis was performed by using SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) - 26.0 for windows.

Results:  Only 40.7% teachers had received first aid training and 36.3% teachers had studied biology in their secondary school studies. The majority of participants knew that eczema (85.0%), asthma (94.7%), and dental pain (91.2%) are not contagious. Nearly all participants knew the symptoms of eczema (92.9%), asthma (96.5%) and dental pain (94.7%). However, about one-third to half of the teachers do not know that eczema (52.2%), asthma (46.9%) and  dental pain (31.0%) are not viral infection. About one-third of the teachers reported that vaccine can be used to prevent eczema (31.9%) and asthma (32.7%) and about one-fifth of them responded that vaccine can be used to prevent dental pain (17.7%).

Conclusion: Results of this study revealed that preschool teachers in Hong Kong had a moderate level of knowledge towards the three common non-contagious diseases, but some teachers had some misconceptions of the causes of the diseases. Health promotion of common non-contagious diseases needs to be strengthened amongst preschool teachers in Hong Kong.