Knowledge, beliefs and attitudes of Italian female undergraduate students towards HIV infection and risky sexual behaviour. Do female medical students make good peer educators?

Coniglio, Maria Anna; Pignato, Sarina; Sidoti, Enza; Tringali, Giuseppe; Marranzano, Marina; Giammanco, G

doi:10.2427/5713

ijph

2010

DOI: 10.2427/5713

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Knowledge, beliefs and attitudes of Italian female undergraduate students towards HIV infection and risky sexual behaviour. Do female medical students make good peer educators?

Maria Anna Coniglio

Sarina Pignato²,

Enza Sidoti³

et al.

Abstract: Background: The main purpose of this study was to identify and describe knowledge, beliefs and attitudestowards HIV infection and risky sexual behaviour in female medical freshmen in order to evaluate thepossibility of female medical student-based peer education.Methods: Researchers surveyed 560 freshmen: 280 medical students and 280 non medical students at twoItalian Universities, collecting the data through anonymous, self-administered questionnaires. Data werecodified and statistical analysis was computed u… Show more

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Cited by 2 publications

References 14 publications

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A school based community randomized trial of the effect of peer health education on primary prevention knowledge, attitude and behaviours towards HPV among adolescents

Ferrara

Langiano²,

Vito³

2012

ijph

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BACKGROUND: This study in the prospect of promoting adherence to the primary and secondary preven-tion programmes will research knowledge, attitudes and behaviors of the student population attendinghigh schools regarding HPV infections and will also promote health education sessions based on peereducation.METHODS: We carried out a community randomized trial regarding HPV infection, HPV vaccination, andsexual health, of students and a peer educational intervention.To verify the effectiveness of peer educators in changing opinions and beliefs about HPV a self-com-pletion questionnaire was made and distributed pre (T1) and post (T2) peer educator intervention. Thesame questionnaires were assigned to the control group.RESULT: The sample consisted of 900 students, mean age was 16.6±1.4, having relationship 34.4%. AtT1, 64.6% of students in experimental group said that they knew HPV, 83.4% how it is transmitted and71.1% HPV vaccination, 54.7% perceived dangerousness with significant gender-related difference. AtT2 the percentages increased. At T1, 14.1% of females were vaccinated at T2 they were 17.5%. The mainfactors associated with the students’ propensity to vaccination were: having at least one sister; being infavour of vaccinations in general; knowing that the vaccine is aimed at preventing cervical cancer; andbeing aware that they could be infected by HPV.CONCLUSION: Both the HPV test and HPV vaccine need effective communication and monitoring of thespread of knowledge, especially among women identified as most in need of information and includedin the age group at risk, in wich it is crucial to encourage informed choices. This underlines the need toplan adequate educational programmes.

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A school based community randomized trial of the effect of peer health education on primary prevention knowledge, attitude and behaviours towards HPV among adolescents

Ferrara

Langiano²,

Vito³

2012

ijph

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Knowledge, attitudes and practices towards patients with HIV/AIDS in staff nurses in one university hospital in Sicily

Marranzano

Ragusa

Platania

et al. 2022

ebph

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Background: nurses’ knowledge, attitudes and practices towards patients with HIV/AIDS are of ongoing interest, especially in developing countries. Nothing or very little is known about Italian nurses. Methods: HIV/AIDS knowledge, attitudes and behaviours of the nurses (n=107) from one university hospital inCatania,Sicily, were documented. Comparisons among nurses belonging to different Operative Units (O.U.) were conducted by the chi-square test (P<0.05). Results: although HIV was nurses’ main concern in regard to contracting infections in the workplace (54%), the vast majority of them (98%) had never refused an HIV/AIDS patient care assignment. Moreover, despite their concern of being more at risk of contracting HIV than the general population (41%), a not negligible percentage of nurses did not use gloves routinely (21%) and only a few treated all patients as potentially HIV-positive (9%). The vast majority of the respondents knew the meaning of AIDS (87%) and of a positive serological test (78%). On the contrary, a relatively low percentage of them knew what is the ‘window period’ (62%) and were acquainted with HIV pathophysiology (65%). No statistically significant differences in terms of risk perception were found between nurses who had previously attended an HIV/AIDS workshop, lecture or specific course (43%) and nurses who did not (57%). Level of knowledge was positively associated to age (P=0.000) and to education (P=0.016), and it was found higher in nurses working in a O.U. of Infectious Diseases. Conclusions: data from our study show that also in developed countries, such as Italy, nurses could have some misconceptions and concerns about HIV/AIDS. The importance of examining the impact of continuing education on nurses’ preparedness to care for patients with HIV/AIDS and to prevent the risks of occupational HIV transmission is discussed.

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Knowledge, beliefs and attitudes of Italian female undergraduate students towards HIV infection and risky sexual behaviour. Do female medical students make good peer educators?

Cited by 2 publications

References 14 publications

A school based community randomized trial of the effect of peer health education on primary prevention knowledge, attitude and behaviours towards HPV among adolescents

A school based community randomized trial of the effect of peer health education on primary prevention knowledge, attitude and behaviours towards HPV among adolescents

Knowledge, attitudes and practices towards patients with HIV/AIDS in staff nurses in one university hospital in Sicily

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