Effectiveness of Reading as a Communication Strategy on the Awareness and Attitude Related to Hiv/Aids Among School Going Adolescents in Rajasthan, India

Abstract

Background: One of the major factors responsible for the spread and high prevalence for HIV/AIDS (Human immuno-deficiency virus infection/Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome) and the stigma/discrimination people with this disorder face is the lack of proper knowledge and misconceptions about this disease. Despite significant progress having been made in knowing about its causative organism(a retro-virus), the mode of transmission, the diagnostic tests that establish a person’s HIV status and the drugs that have improved survival, this disease still claims 1.8 million lives annually. As such, the role of information, education and communication in prevention and control of HIV/AIDS is being greatly emphasized. Reading is one such communication strategy that can be used to educate adolescents about HIV/AIDS. Objectives: 1. To assess the knowledge of school-going adolescents regarding HIV/AIDS and their attitude towards people living with HIV/AIDS. 2. To test the effectiveness of reading as a communication strategy on the knowledge and attitude of students towards people living with HIV/AIDS. Methodology: 245 students from three English medium elite schools, studying in class 11th and 12th, selected for the study, conducted between February 2011-April 2011, were randomly divided into experimental and control groups, where the former read an HIV-related story and the latter read an unrelated story. After this, both groups were administered a knowledge and attitude questionnaire to fill and their responses recorded. Results: The students who read the HIV-related story, Experimental group, possessed superior knowledge related to 58% questions on awareness and held a more positive attitude, (with a mean score of 7.34± 3.11 vs.6.18± 3.62) towards HIV-positive patients as compared to the respondents from the Control group, the difference in both the cases being statistically significant (p