Abstract

ASSESSMENT OF KNOWLEDGE AND ATTITUDE OF HIV AMONG HIGHER GRADE SCHOOL GOING STUDENTS

Vineela Chadalavada* and Maniratna Aswinidutt K.

ABSTRACT

Background: India stands third largest HIV epidemic in the world. The Indian government has developed several action plans under National AIDS control programme (NACP) to control the spread. One among them is; Youth Interventions and Adolescence Education Programme on AIDS, that aim to help adolescents cope with negative peer pressure and improve awareness on sexual health and HIV. The objective of the present study is to assess awareness of HIV/AIDS amongst adolescents in Guntur. Method: It is a cross sectional study to conduct among adolescents at a school located in the city Guntur using pre- designed questionnaire. The questions were divided in to four sessions; Knowledge regarding HIV/AIDS infection; Distribution of respondents according to myths regarding HIV/AIDS; Attitude of Respondents towards people with HIV/AIDS and Awareness of students on prevention of HIV/AIDS. The data was spread in excel sheet and analyzed using simple descriptive statistics. Results: Total 258 students of age group 14-18 years participated in the study. Average of 189 students has knowledge of HIV transmission, 174 students have myths regarding HIV, and 87 students expressed a positive attitude towards the people living with HIV/AIDS and on an average of 230 students are aware of preventive methods. Majority of students (182(70.5%)) acquired knowledge of HIV from school education, where some from friends (39(15.1%)), followed by other sources. Conclusion: The study recommends, apart from class room teaching, we would like to recommend certain specific seminars and awareness campaigns to be conducted by trained professionals in HIV/AIDS at school campus.

Keywords: HIV/AIDS; Knowledge and awareness; School students.