Knowledge and attitude towards HIV/AIDS among undergraduate students Misao Hathoikim, Lamare Ibaiasuk, Rhetso Mecievinü, Rana Nihali Devi, Chyne Phibadashisha, Humtsoe Y Zuchanbeni* College of Nursing, Christian Institute of Health Sciences and Research (CIHSR), 4th Mile PO- ARTC Diphupar, Dimapur, Nagaland-797115 *Corresponding Author Email: zuch_humtsoe@yahoo.com
Online published on 30 April, 2020. Abstract Title Knowledge and Attitude towards HIV/AIDS among undergraduate students. Background Currently over 30% of all new HIV infections globally are estimated to occur among young people, aged 15–25 years. There are 5 million young people living with the disease. HIV/AIDS is the second leading cause of death among young people. Mostly the college students are considered as high risk groups, as the college campus provides students with a sense of new independence, self- determination and strong peer pressure to experiment with a variety of unsafe behavior leading to infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Material and Methods A non-experimental descriptive study was adopted to assess the knowledge and attitude towards HIV/AIDS among undergraduate students of selected colleges in Dimapur, Nagaland. A total of 362 subjects were selected using a non-probability consecutive sampling technique. A self-administered structured questionnaire was used for collecting the data on knowledge and attitude towards HIV/AIDS. Results The finding showed that out of 362 undergraduate college students, 136(37.5%) had adequate knowledge, 114(31.49%) had moderate knowledge and 112(30.9%) had inadequate knowledge respectively. While in attitude, 286(79%) of the students had a positive attitude, 71(20%) had a neutral attitude and 5(1%) had a negative attitude towards HIV/AIDS. There was no association between knowledge with gender, religion, geographical location and marital status while there was an association with age and educational status. In attitude, no association was found for attitude with age, religion, geographical location and marital status but there was an association with gender and educational status. There was a significant correlation between knowledge and attitude (P<0.05) Conclusion Our study shows that even though the majority of the undergraduate students had moderate to adequate knowledge about HIV/AIDS and their attitude toward HIV/AIDS was good, about one-third had inadequate knowledge. This emphasizes the need for providing factual and precise knowledge on HIV/AIDS for the undergraduate college students. There should also be a drive to increase education and awareness about HIV/AIDS in educational institutes. Top Keywords HIV/AIDS, Knowledge, Attitude. Top |