Professional Risk, Knowledge, Attitudes and Practice of Health Care Personnel in Serbia with Regard to HIV and AIDS

Abstract

The aim of our investigation was to assess HIV/AIDS-related professional risk, knowledge, attitude and practice of health care workers in Nis. A cross-sectional study of health personnel from Primary Health Centre, Clinical Medical Centre and Dental Clinic in Nis was performed. The data were collected by an anonymous questionnaire. Mantel-Haenszel X2 testing and multiple logistic regression analysis were applied. Results show that 89% of health personnel perceived high professional risk of acquiring HIV infection. The risk perception of acquiring HIV infections was higher among those who were frequently exposed to patients' blood and other body fluids (OR = 10.1 95% CI = 3.1-32.5), and those who had treated HIV-positive patients (OR = 3.0 95% CI = 1.0-8.8). The majority of respondents had insufficient knowledge about the modes of HIV transmission. Nearly two thirds of health personnel agreed that every hospitalized patient should be tested for HIV, and more than four fifths of them agreed that their personal protection was more important than the confidentiality of patient's HIV/AIDS status. Twenty nine percent of health personnel use adequate protection during their daily work with patients. These findings indicated a need for urgent educational and training initiatives of HIV and AIDS for all categories of health care workers.