HIV/AIDS Awareness among Secondary Schools’ Adolescents in South-Western Nigeria: A Correlate to Strengthen Advocacy and Strategic Sexuality Education Programs

Abstract

Background: The magnitude of the HIV epidemic and the prevailing lack of sexual health interventions targeting young people in sub-Saharan Africa calls for a wider awareness and strategic approach-based advocacy. Although adolescents are pivotal to manpower development and technological advancement in Nigeria, HIV epidemic is on the increase among this vulnerable group due to lack of sexuality education and rightful intervention programs. Design: This is a cross-sectional descriptive study. Objective: The main objective of the study was to determine the level of awareness, knowledge and attitude towards HIV/AIDS among secondary school students in Atisbo Local Government Area, Nigeria. Methods: Two-stage clustered sampling method was deployed to recruit participants into the study. Instrument: A pilot-tested questionnaire developed from review of literatures was administered on 343 participants upon their consent. Result: The Mean age of the participants was 16 ±2 years and nearly two-third (209, 63.0%) of them were females. The study discovered that half of the participants (165, 50.9%) live with both parents and a little more than one-third (113, 34.5%) belong to well-educated parents. Most participants (296, 91.9%) were quite awareof HIV/AIDS and about a quarter (79, 24.2%) of them have had sexual encounter. A greater portion of them (213, 64.9%) discuss sexual matters with their parents and the majority (205, 63.9%) would care for their HIV/AIDS positive relatives. Overall, father’s education, discussion of sexual matters with parents and age were all associated with participants’ awareness and behaviour toward sex and sexuality, HIV/AIDS and people living with HIV/AIDS. Conclusion: The surveyed secondary school students possess relatively good knowledge of HIV/AIDS, reasonable sexual practices and positive attitude towards sexuality, HIV/AIDS and people living with HIV/AIDS. Social settings and parental sexuality communication as a result of educational attainment, played significant roles in the attitude of their children. Efforts should be intensified to provide more comprehensive information on sexuality and HIV/AIDS through the mass media. This possibly will improve students’ attitudes toward abstinence, safer sex and behaviour toward people already infected with HIV/AIDS.