ADOLESCENT KNOWLEDGE AND AWARENESS ABOUT AIDS/HIV AND FACTORS AFFECTING THEM IN BANGLADESH

Authors

  • M. Mizanur Rahman
  • M. Kabir
  • M. Shahidullah

Abstract

Background: Adolescents are more vulnerable than adults of unplanned pregnancies, sexuallytransmitted diseases and HIV/AIDS. Among the adolescents, girls are more vulnerable to STDsincluding HIV/AIDS. Their knowledge about different diseases is very poor. This paper investigatedadolescent’s knowledge about sexually transmitted diseases including HIV/AIDS, its mode oftransmission and ways of its prevention. Methods: Cross sectional study design was adopted for thisstudy. A multistage cluster sampling technique was used to select the sample. Data on 3362 femaleadolescents irrespective of their marital status was analyzed. Results: The study found that a largeproportion of adolescents were not aware about sexually transmitted diseases and AIDS. More than half54.8 of the adolescents ever heard about AIDS respectively. On an average, about one tenth of themhad better knowledge on AIDS in terms of mode of transmission and prevention. The multivariatelogistic regression analysis revealed that adolescent age, years of schooling and knowledge on STDsappeared to be important predictors of the awareness about AIDS p<0.05. Conclusions: Useful andfruitful media campaigns to educate the adolescents regarding the health consequences of STDsincluding HIV/AIDS and integrated approach is strongly suggested for creating knowledge andawareness to control the spread of HIV and AIDS among young people in Bangladesh.Keywords: Adolescent, Knowledge, Awareness, STDs, AIDS/HIV, Bangladesh

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Published

2009-09-01

Issue

Vol. 21 No. 3 (2009): JOURNAL OF AYUB MEDICAL COLLEGE, ABBOTTABAD

Section

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

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