The evaluation of peer education workshops efficacy on knowledge of non medical students about HIV/AIDS, Bushehr, South of Iran

Abstract

Background Some researches have shown that lack of information in high-risk communities, especially among young people about ways of transmission and protection of HIV/AIDS increase risk of disease. Different strategies regarding the risk of AIDS awareness have been used up to now. The present study is done to evaluate peer education workshops efficacy on knowledge of non medical student (of Khalij-e-fars university and Bushehr payam-enour university) about HIV/AIDS. Methods In this interventional study, rate of awareness of 144 students participated in peer education HIV/AIDS workshop in 2009 as a pre-test and post test questions in the form of a questionnaire 7 is assessed. Data are analyzed using SPSS version 13.0 and student T Test. P < 0.05 indicated a statistically significant difference between groups. Results 144 non-medical students from two Persian Gulf University (63) and Bushehr payame noor University (81) participate in this study. There is a significant difference between rate of correct responses of all students in pre test and post test questions, test 1 (P value < 0.001), test 4 (P value = 0.001), test 5 (P value < 0.001) and test 6 (P value = 0.004). The mean of pre test score was 4.73 with standard deviation 1.10 and the mean of post test score was 5.31 with standard deviation 0.94. This increase in terms of knowledge is statistically significant (P value < 0.001). Discussion In this study students awareness about HIV/AIDS after workshops teached by the peer education group had a significant increase and regards to effectiveness of this method, students’ cooperation and financial benefits of such trainings using this method can have a large share in student education.