Knowledge,attitude and behavior about AIDS prevention among college students

Objective To examine the status of acquired immune deficiency syndrome(AIDS)-related knowledge and the way to get the knowledge among college students and to provide evidences for conducting AIDS-related health education in the students.Methods By using cluster random sampling,we collected 800 students of grade 1 to 3 from a university in Jinzhou city of Liaoning province for an anonymous self-administered questionnaire survey.ResultsAmong the students,the overall awareness rate of AIDS-related knowledge was 78.76% and the awareness rate of the girls was significantly higher than that of the boys(82.35% vs.76.09%,P<0.05).The awareness rate of AIDS prevention and treatment knowledge were 71.48%,81.35%,and 83.95% among the students of grade one,two,and three,respectively,and increased with the study years in the university(P<0.05); the awareness rates for the three major transmission routes(sexual,blood,and vertical transmission) of human immunodeficiency virus(HIV) were all higher than 90% among the students but the awareness rate for knowledge about non-transmission routes of HIV such as whether a mosquito bite could transmit HIV was low.Of the students,64.02% manifested HIV/AIDS discrimination; 7.39% reported sexual behavior,of which,39.29% used condom in their first sexual experience,40.91% used condom in every sexual activity,and 14.29% reported commercial sexual behaviors.Conclusion College students do not have a good knowledge about AIDS prevention and treatment and the knowledge level is different among the students of various grade,suggesting health education on AIDS control and safe sexual behavior needs to be promoted among the students.