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IMPACT OF HEALTH EDUCATION ON HIV/AIDS RISK BEHAVIOUR OF SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN TWO JOS LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREAS, PLATEAU STATE
Abstract
BACKGROUND : HIV/AIDS is now recognized as one of the most important infectious diseases devastating the world today, especially among the young people. It is deeply rooted in the cultural, social and environmental factors of the people and promoted by ignorance, fear and a feeling of helplessness. Health education, when started early, has a place in increasing people’s knowledge of the disease. This may reduce the risk and vulnerability in getting infected.
OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study was to determine the students’ knowledge, attitude and risk behaviour to HIV/AIDS and the impact of health education intervention on these.
METHODS: This was a school based interventional study using study and control design. A multi-staged sampling technique was used to select the study subjects with schools as the primary sampling units and the students as the secondary sampling units. The selected schools were then randomly assigned to the study and control groups. A total of one thousand two hundred and forty six (1246) students were recruited for the study at baseline and one thousand two hundred and thirty eight (1238) of them completed the study
RESULTS: The male:female ratio was 1.1:1 in the study group and 1:1 in the control group. The mean ages of the students was 17.6 2.0 years in the study group and 17.8 2.2 years in the control group. There was a statistically significant improvement in the students’ HIV/AIDS knowledge after the intervention in the study group (p=0.00001) but not in the control group (p=0.60). There was also a statistically significant reduction in their risk behaviour after the intervention in the study group (p=0.023) but not in the control group (p=0.65). In addition, there was a statistically significant improvement in the study students’ attitude to HIV/AIDS (p=0.001) but not among the control students (P=0.86).
CONCLUSION: Health education was found to significantly improve the
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students’ knowledge and attitude to HIV/AIDS as well as their risk behaviour. Factors such as age, sex and educational level of parents did not influence the improvement. It was therefore recommended that HIV/AIDS health education of students at school should form an integral part of the current campaign against HIV/AIDS. Teachers can be trained to do this in secondary schools and it should start as early as the students’ first year in school.
