HIV/AIDS Knowledge and Attitude among Military Recruits at Depot Nigeria Army, Zaria, Nigeria

Abstract

Military personnel have higher HIV/AIDS prevalence than the general population. They tend to be young, single, sexually active and highly mobile and may stay away from their home. This study assessed HIV/AIDS knowledge and attitude among recruits at Nigerian Army Depot in Zaria Nigeria. It was a cross sectional descriptive study carried out February 2011 using 300 structured, self-administered questionnaires. Majority of the respondents (80.3%) were within the age bracket of 20- 24 years with mean age of 21.8 ± 2.0 years, 93% single and 53.3% secondary school graduate. Majority of the respondents (91.0%) have heard of HIV/AIDS, while a lot of them (72.6%) knew those that are victims of the disease. Majority of the respondents (74.3%) also knew that HIV/AIDS was caused by virus. On the overall, only 48.7% of the respondents had good knowledge of the disease. About 80.7% of the respondents would offer assistance to HIV infected people, 62.3% agreed that HIV positive women should not be having babies, while 66.0% believed that HIV/AIDS patients should not be stigmatized against among others. The study revealed amongst others that the recruits had very good knowledge of HIV/AIDS and also good attitudes to it. The recommendations include- aggressive regular HIV/AIDS awareness campaigns, development of attitudinal and behavioural change communication strategies for the recruits in particular, health education by faith based organisations. There is also the need to develop a good practical tool and quality control programs for monitoring and evaluation of the various HIV/AIDS awareness programs in the barracks for enhanced effectiveness and efficiency.