Evaluation of Knowledge and attitude of non-medical students about AIDS

Introduction: Young people worldwide are considered as the major group at risk of AIDS. Education and prevention is the primary priority of health care for control of AIDS Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine the level of knowledge and attitude of students in Qom non-medical universities on AIDS Methods: This study was conducted in 2012. This was a descriptive analytical study and samples included 588 students from non-medical universities in Qom city who were selected by convenient sampling method. The self-administrated questionnaire included a demographic questionnaire and Iranian- version of international questionnaire on AIDS. Data were analyzed using statistical tests including Kruscal - Wallis, Chi-square, t-test, ANOVA and Spearman correlations Rیافته ها: نتایج نشان داد که سبک فرزندپروری مقتدرانه هم با نمره کل مشکلات رفتاری درونی سازی (003/RResults: Findings revealed that majority (76%) of subjects were female. 28.2% of samples received their knowledge about AIDS and its prevention ways from radio and television, 1.4% from friends and 2.6 from university sources. The mean scores of domains included transmission myths (28.34&plusmn;4.73), attitudes or prejudices about AIDS patients (19.75&plusmn;3.72), personal risk (10.19&plusmn;2.28), facts on AIDS transmission (12&plusmn;3.41) and total score (70.04&plusmn;8.77). Study results indicated that girls had more knowledge and better attitude about people with HIV/ AIDS than boys (p<0.0001). Conclusion: Although study findings indicated that students had almost high level of knowledge and attitude in relation to HIV/AIDS but this level of knowledge is not sufficient and students need developed educational programs