AIDS Knowledge among Latinos: Findings from a Community and Agricultural Labor Camp Survey

Abstract

The authors assessed knowledge about AIDS and its modes of transmission in Latino adults from northern California via a survey administered in 2000 to 461 women and 356 men from a community sample and 188 men from a labor camp sample. The majority of respondents viewed AIDS as a serious problem in their community. Knowledge about how AIDS is transmitted varied from accurate beliefs about the virus being transmitted by biomedical modes to inaccurate beliefs about its transmittal through casual contact. A multiple regression analysis identified three groups with the highest misconceptions about AIDS transmission: Latinos with low educational attainment, particularly men from labor camps; Latinos who were the oldest in the sample (40 to 64 years of age); and Latinos with low educational attainment who had not visited a doctor recently. These findings identify groups with high misconceptions about AIDS who will benefit from special outreach and education.