Conception of AIDS and its prevention among students in a Nigerian university
Odebiyi, A.I.
Journal of the Royal Society of Health 112(2): 59-63
1992
ISSN/ISBN: 0264-0325 PMID: 1573623 DOI: 10.1177/146642409211200202Document Number: 323161
HIV and AIDS are rapidly invading parts of Africa. To prevent the continued spread of the pandemic, sex and health education interventions aim to increase awareness about AIDS and HIV transmission, and condom use is promoted as a specific preventive tool. Increased awareness, however, does not necessarily promote and lead to individual behavioral change. This study explores AIDS awareness, HIV transmission knowledge, and prevention among 2 samples of university students in the continent's most populated country, Nigeria. 2 sample groups of 60 each were identified in 1989, via accidental sampling technique. 1 group was comprised of medical students, while the other was comprised of students studying non health disciplines. Knowledge level and perceptions generally differed between groups. 58.3% an 48.3% of medical students and non medical students, respectively considered AIDS to be a dreadful sexually transmitted disease. 3.3% and 20.0% of medical students and nonmedical students held AIDS to be God's punishment for man's sexual excesses. While 89% and 61.2% of medical students and nonmedical students, respectively, believed that condoms could prevent AIDS, few favored their use. None of the students attributed AIDS to mystical forces, while some associated it with affluence. These results demonstrate the failure of knowledge alone to effect behavioral change away from risky sexual activities. Instead of trying to further increase knowledge levels, and in spite of the sociocultural factors that work against effective disease control in Nigeria, greater effort must be given to directly bringing about behavioral change.