Differences in Knowledge, Attitude, and Behavior towards HIV/AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Infections between Sexually Active Foreign and Chinese Medical Students

Abstract

Although the prevalence of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) decreased in the last decade worldwide, the number of deaths due to HIV/AIDS and communicable diseases including syphilis, hepatitis, and tuberculosis had dramatically increased in developing countries. Education and behavior are incredibly important factors to prevent these diseases' spread. This study highlights the range of differences in knowledge, attitude, and behavior of 434 sexually active medical students towards HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Because the surveyed population constitutes the forefront of healthcare providers and was originated from different area of the world, this is the first time a study sought to investigate the behavioral attitude of this group of population irrespective of the three levels of their academic and professional knowledge. Several factors including sociodemographic characteristics, sexual behavior, HIV/AIDS, and STIs related patterns play a key role in medical student attitude and behavior towards people infected with HIV/AIDS and STIs. Our findings add consistent value in prior studies which aimed to stop new infections and also imply further investigations on the management of the studied infections by medical students. The present study arouses much interest among participants and provides evidence of reinforcing medical students' education on HIV/AIDS and STIs.

A Study of First Year Students Attitude towards HIV and AIDS

“…In this study more male students participated than their female counterparts which is in consistence with the studies of Zhang et al (2008), Masoudnia (2015 and Kuete et al (2016). However, this is contrary to the previous works of Lau & Tsui (2005), Lohmann et al (2009), Movahed andShoaa (2010), Rahnama et al (2011), Kopele &Shumba (2011) andAmo-Adjei &Darteh (2013) where more female participated in the study than male.…”

“…Rahnama et al (2011) disclose that only 19.5 % of all the students stated that they will inform their partners or family if they were diagnosed positive for HIV infection and only 43 % were willing to care for HIV infected person in their own house. Kuete et al (2016) establish that 45% of Chinese medical students compared to 36% of foreigners preferred to avoid condom use after HIV testing; about 29% of Chinese medical students prefer to stay away from classmate or colleague infected with HIV while 24% of foreigners thought it was unwise to be close to HIV infected person. Tavoosi et al (2004) found that negative attitudes toward HIV-infected individuals were common such that 46% of students thought that a student with the disease should not be allowed to enter an ordinary school, 35% of the students stated that they prefer not to sit in a class near an HIV positive student and 23% of students indicated that they would not shake hands with an HIV-positive person if they knew about his or her status.…”

“…Most of these studies focused on attitude of individuals or students towards people living with HIV and AIDS (Kuete et al., 2016;Ranjan et al., 2015;TACAIDS et al., 2008TACAIDS et al., & 2013Hayyawi et al., 2010;Lohmann et al., 2009;Lau & Tsui 2005;Zhang et al., 2008). Collectively, some of these include:  attitude of students vis-a-vis of friend/classmate infected of HIV/AIDS;  students' attitude towards people living with HIV and support of students towards HIV/AIDS matters;…”

“…Other indicators assessed in these and other researches are:  pre-marital testing for HIV to be compulsory and there should be employment opportunity for HIV infected people, willingness to inform their partners or family if ere diagnosed positive for HIV infection (Rahnama et al., 2011);  attitude towards negotiating safer sex and attitudes towards condom education for young people (TACAIDS et al., 2008(TACAIDS et al., & 2013Kopele & Shumba, 2011);  background characteristics (age, education, sex, wealth index, religion, student's major, ethnicity, marital status, place of residence and region) (Amo-Adjei & Darteh, 2013;Movahed & Shoaa, 2010;Rahnama et al., 2011;and Unnikrishnan et al., 2010)  avoidance of condom usage between partners HIV (Kuete et al., 2016);  willingness to get tested for HIV (Unnikrishnan et al., 2010;Kopele & Shumba, 2011);  using condom (EAC/EALP, 2010and TACAIDS et al., 2008& 2013;…”

“…URT (2013) identify stigma and discrimination as one of the challenges to HIV prevention in the area of HIV testing and counseling. Several researchers (Kuete et al., 2016;Ranjan et al., 2015;TACAIDS et al., 2008TACAIDS et al., & 2013Hayyawi at el, 2010;Lohmann et al., 2009;Amo-Adjei & Darteh, 2013;Movahed & Shoaa, 2010;Rahnama et al., 2011;Unnikrishnan et al., 2010;EAC/EALP, 2010) have assessed attitude towards HIV and AIDS, stigma and discrimination using various indicators. Collectively, findings of these studies disclose the existence of negative attitude towards HIV and AIDS among respondents at varying levels.…”