Knowledge, behavior, and attitudes of adolescent university students towards HIV infection and AIDS

Abstract

The aim of this study was to evaluate the knowledge, behavior, and attitudes of students entering the University of Buenos Aires (UBA) towards HIV/AIDS, as well as to determine the differences between genders and between groups with different behavior in terms of HIV/AIDS risk behavior, through the conduct of an ad hoc semi-structured questionnaire. This questionnaire was completed anonymously by 12,000 university students going in for compulsory medical check-up at the Health and Social Welfare Office of the UBA. Two thousand cases were selected by simple randomized sampling and statistically analyzed. Results revealed that: (1) 87.2% of the population under study was between 18 and 27 years old; (2) the students' knowledge of the subject was acceptable; (3) the percentage of respondents who reported having sexual intercourse with more than one person decreased as the number of sexual partners in a year increased. Less than 1.5% explicitly stated being homosexual or bisexual; (4) 53.9% of the men and 46.7% of the women claimed they always used condoms; (5) analysis of the perception of their own risk showed that 75% considered they were not at risk; (6) between 95.8% and 98% were in favor of developing educational-preventive activities and 64.2% thought compulsory AIDS screening for job applicants or candidates for educational courses was discrimination.

Conclusions: (a) Information available to admission course students is sufficient. However, there are contradictions in their responses about their own behaviors; (b) Most of the respondents are in favor of the corresponding Faculties implementing educational and preventive measures. The students would regard the University's intervention as a way of fulfilling its social role.