Abstract:

OBJECTIVE: This study aims to evaluate the knowledge and attitudes on Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) of Balikesir University students. METHODS: The study was conducted with 410 students receiving education at various academic units of Fiskesir University and who applied to Medico-Social for any reason. The questions were selected based on a review of previous studies (Kitaura et al. 1997; Nwokocha and Nwakoby 2002; Ungan and Yaman 2003; Montazeri 2005; Acaroglu 2007 and Tasci et al. in 2008). Data was collected from the students in face-to-face interviews. In the analysis were used with Descriptive Statistics, Variance Analysis (ANOVA), Kolmogorov-Smirnov (K-S) test and Mann-Whitney U Test. RESULTS: The students (48.3%) define the knowledge level of HIV/AIDS as “little”. It is determined that students about the expressions which are "Mosquitos can transmit HIV'', "Eventing people with AIDS" and "There is a new effective vaccine against the disease" have misinformation and the majority of students give right answers the expessions about the ways of infection of HIV/AIDS. It is determined that the students have a positive attitude towards HIV/AIDS and infected persons but they are undecided about living in the same house with infected persons. The students state that they at most get the knowledge about HIV/AIDS via TV (78,5%), Internet (75.1%) and Newspaper (50%). It is determined that there were significant differences according to the conclusion of Independent Samples T Test, between the gender of participants and the protection from HIV/AIDS and treatment knowledge level (t=-2,960; p=0,003<0,05) and according to the conclusion of One Way (ANOVA), between the age of participants and the protection from HIV/AIDS and treatment knowledge level (F=3,975; p=0,020<0,05) and between the class of participants and the general knowledge about HIV/AIDS (F=4,770; p=003<0,05). CONCLUSION: Although the majority of students define the knowledge level of HIV/AIDS as “little”, it can be said that they have positive attitude towards HIV/AIDS and infected persons and the majority of the source of knowledge consists of mass media tools. It is found that according to the given expressions about the protection of HIV/AIDS and treatment ways, the right answers of male students are more than the female'. Also, it is found that when the students are getting older, their right answers of given expressions about the protection from HIV/AIDS and treatment ways decreasing and when their class is increasing, the right answers of given expressions about the general knowledge about HIV/AIDS decreasing.

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