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      The Iranian female high school students' attitude towards people with HIV/AIDS: a cross-sectional study

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      Author(s): 1 , 2 , , 1 , 3
      Publication date (Electronic):
      Journal: AIDS Research and Therapy
      Publisher: BioMed Central

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          Abstract

          Background

          Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) has become an important public health hazard in Iran. It is believed that AIDS-related knowledge does not necessarily translate into behavior modification. Hence, it has been suggested that culturally appropriate educational campaigns should be implemented to obtain satisfactory outcomes. Here, we evaluated the female high school students' attitude towards HIV/AIDS in Tabriz, Iran to assess the cultural needs for the related educational programs and to discover sources of information about AIDS.

          Results

          Anonymous, self-administered questionnaires were filled by the young female students. Among 300 students, 91% agreed that being an HIV carrier should not be an obstacle to obtaining education and employment. Moreover, 72.5% of the students declared that the community should be informed of HIV-positive people. In addition, one-tenth declared that they would feel extremely uncomfortable towards their HIV infected classmate. In addition, only 16% of the students stated that they would continue to shop at HIV infected grocer's store. The mass media and the experts were the major source and the most reliable source of information about AIDS, respectively.

          Conclusion

          Tabrizian female students have overall negative attitudes towards HIV/AIDS. HIV/AIDS related educational campaigns should target the students, society and the families with emphasizing the leading roles of health staff.

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          Most cited references15

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          Knowledge and attitude towards HIV/AIDS among Iranian students

          Anahita Tavoosi, Azadeh Zaferani, Anahita Enzevaei … (2004)
          Background Young people are of particular importance in state policies against Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS). We intended to assess the knowledge and attitude of high school students regarding AIDS in Iran. Methods Through a cluster-sampling, 4641 students from 52 high schools in Tehran were assessed by anonymous questionnaires in February 2002. Results The students identified television as their most important source of information about AIDS. Only a few students answered all the knowledge questions correctly, and there were many misconceptions about the routes of transmission. Mosquito bites (33%), public swimming pools (21%), and public toilets (20%) were incorrectly identified as routes of transmission. 46% believed that Human Immunodeficiency Virus positive (HIV positive) students should not attend ordinary schools. Most of the students wanted to know more about AIDS. In this study knowledge level was associated with students' attitudes and discipline (p < 0.001). Conclusion Although the knowledge level seems to be moderately high, misconceptions about the routes of transmission were common. There was a substantial intolerant attitude towards AIDS and HIV positive patients. We recommend that strategies for AIDS risk reduction in adolescents be developed in Iranian high schools.
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            Break the silence: HIV/AIDS knowledge, attitudes, and educational needs among Arab university students in United Arab Emirates.

            Fatma Al-Oweisi, Maria Ganczak, Fatima Alfaresi … (2007)
            In light of increasing spread of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in the Middle East, we assessed knowledge, attitudes, and educational needs of young people in United Arab Emirates (UAE), a modern and moderately conservative Islamic country. A cross-sectional survey among randomly selected first-year, gender-segregated Arab students at the national university in Al Ain in 2005 was conducted using an adaptation of an anonymous self-administered World Health Organization questionnaire. Knowledge and attitudes were scored. Response was 89%; 119 males and 148 females. Knowledge scores about HIV/AIDS were low for 75%, moderate for 24%, high for <1%. Although 90% knew main routes of infection, there were misconceptions about transmission, and only 31% knew there is no vaccine and 34% no cure. Religion was stated as a reason to avoid extramarital relationships by 91% and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) by 38%; 94% favored premarital testing. Attitudes toward people living with HIV (PLH) were neither friendly nor tolerant, including 97% who felt all people entering UAE should be tested, 53% that PLH should be forced to live apart, and only 27% who felt children with HIV should be allowed to attend school. Ninety-six percent stated that young people should be taught how to protect themselves and 57% that teaching at school was insufficient. Main information sources were books/media; preferred sources were media, schools, and health professionals. Males scored higher on knowledge and were more susceptible to fear of STDs, society, and family; females showed greater compassion and interest in premarital testing and education to protect themselves. Alarming gaps in knowledge about transmission and curability put young Arabs at risk of contracting HIV. Fear and intolerant attitudes toward PLH were prevalent. HIV/AIDS education designed to raise knowledge and change attitudes, and respectful of community values, is urgently needed from media, schools, and health professionals.
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              Knowledge, attitudes and behaviour after 15 years of HIV/AIDS prevention in schools.

              K Merakou, J. Kourea-Kremastinou, Joanna Marcopoulou … (2002)
              This paper reports efforts to estimate the results of the prevention policy of HIV/AIDS in young people, 15 years after the first case of AIDS in Greece by investigating the current level of knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, behaviour and practices of high school students towards HIV/AIDS. Questionnaires from 702 students of 13 technical high schools in the Athens area were collected and analysed in 1997. 72% of the questions regarding knowledge were answered accurately. 43.15% of the participants believed that their knowledge about HIV/AIDS was sufficient. They considered AIDS to be a big threat to society (89.65%), and would be embarrassed if they were HIV positive (31.75%), however, they would be compassionate to HIV positive persons. One out of three were worried about already being HIV infected, because of their risky behaviour in the past, especially boys. The major change in their behaviour was the use of a condom (80.9% for boys and 56.7% for girls). 64.8% of the girls did not have sexual relations, while 41.9% of the boys had sexual relations with casual partners. After 15 years of prevention activities among young people, students have a satisfactory level of knowledge and have adopted relatively safe behaviour. However, boys, younger students, students with a high sense of religiousness and students with both excellent and low school records need more intense and systematic information through suitable interventions.
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                Author and article information

                Journal
                Journal ID (nlm-ta): AIDS Res Ther
                Title: AIDS Research and Therapy
                Publisher: BioMed Central
                ISSN (Electronic): 1742-6405
                Publication date Collection: 2008
                Publication date (Electronic): 22 July 2008
                Volume: 5
                Page: 15
                Affiliations
                [1 ]Tuberculosis and Lung Disease Research Center, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Daneshgah St., Tabriz, Iran
                [2 ]Students' Research Committee, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Attar Neishabouri Ave., Golgasht St., Tabriz, Iran
                [3 ]Faculty of Medicine, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Daneshgah St., Tabriz, Iran
                Article
                Publisher ID: 1742-6405-5-15
                DOI: 10.1186/1742-6405-5-15
                PMC ID: 2495004
                PubMed ID: 18647392
                SO-VID: 00ff8481-4fd4-46ea-9a7f-d3ace01394ff
                Copyright © Copyright © 2008 Ghabili et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.
                License:

                This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

                History
                Date received : 11 April 2008
                Date accepted : 22 July 2008
                Categories
                Subject: Research

                ScienceOpen disciplines: Infectious disease & Microbiology
                Data availability:
                ScienceOpen disciplines: Infectious disease & Microbiology

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