Knowledge, attitude and beliefs towards HIV/AIDS among students of health institutes in Sana’a city

Abstract

Students of health-related subjects have an important role in national strategies on HIV/AIDS prevention. This study assessed the knowledge, attitudes and beliefs towards HIV/AIDS among students at health institutes in Sana'a city, Yemen. A descriptive cross-sectional questionnaire survey was conducted on 600 students selected by cluster sampling. Students had a moderate level of HIV/AIDS knowledge (an average of 67.6% were correct on all items). Nevertheless, 82.3% knew that HIV could be transmitted by sexual intercourse without a condom, 87.5% from syringes, 71.8% from infected blood and 80.7% from mother to child. Misconceptions about how HIV is transmitted (e.g. hugging and kissing or sharing food, swimming pools and classrooms) were found among 41.5% of the students. Attitudes towards people living with HIV/AIDS showed that 59.8% of students were accepting and positive. There was a common opinion among respondents that HIV-infected persons needed to be punished (65.5%) and isolated (41.0%); however, 86.8% were willing to care for an HIV-infected person. Sana'a and Al-Sabeen Hospital, Sana'a, Yemen (Correspondence to N.A. Al-Rabeei: nabilalrabeei@hotmail.com

Assessment of the Level of Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice with Regard to Care of People Living with HIV/AIDS among Nursing and Midwifery Students in Fako, Cameroon

“…Overall the HIV/AIDS knowledge of the respondents in this study was moderate. The finding of moderate level of HIV/AIDS knowledge in this study is in line with studies performed elsewhere [18] [19]. The level of HIV/ AIDS knowledge in this study is however lower compared to that of nursing students in Japan [20] and India [21] in which HIV/AIDS knowledge was observed to be very high.…”

Nursing Students’ Willingness to Care for Human Immunodeficiency Virus–Infected Patients in the Future

“…The literature review of nursing students' level of knowledge of HIV in different countries yields varying results. Whereas some studies reported large knowledge gaps, 8,9,14 others reported a moderate level of knowledge 5,6 or even a good level of knowledge. 7,10 In the present study, while students' overall knowledge level was moderate, a weak area was knowledge of safe practices for health care providers caring for HIV-infected patients.…”

“…[5][6][7][8][11][12][13]20 Students in our study were found to express low willingness to take part in surgical nursing procedures involving contact with bodily fluids of HIV-infected patients. Durkin 21 also noted variations in American nursing students' comfort level when providing care to these patients.…”

“…Recent studies from different countries have shown generally that a majority of nursing students have a positive attitude toward HIV-infected patients and have expressed willingness to provide care to these patients. [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13] Several studies, however, also emphasized that avoidance of caring for these patients, 6,10 the presence of high levels of refraining attitudes, 8,14 and persistence in stigmatization of high-risk groups 9 were not uncommon among students. Suominen et al 15 and Välimäki et al 13 compared 3 Baltic countries and noted that students' willingness to care for these patients varied between countries and was also associated with specific nursing interventions.…”

Application of the Theory of Planned Behavior to Assess the Determinants of HIV/AIDS Risk among High School Students in Hawassa City, Ethiopia

“…To the contrary, other studies conducted among students showed poor knowledge, favorable attitude and poor practices towards HIV/AIDS and the study highlighted misconceptions about preventive methods of HIV transmission and risky sexual practices which need to be addressed [23,24].…”