Awareness among Youth - a Tool in Reducing their Vulnerability to HIV/AIDS

Reaching youngsters at an impressionable age before they become sexually active can lay the foundation for a responsible lifestyle, including healthy relationships and safe sex habits1.

To know the awareness of HIV/AIDS among pre-university [PU] students.

Study Design- Cross-sectional, Descriptive study. Duration of Study: 3 months [October 2012 to December 2012]. Participants: 300 pre-university students from 2 randomly selected colleges of Davangere city.

A pre-tested, semi-structured anonymous questionnaire was used for the study.

Tests of significance like Pearson's Chi-square test were applied, P values <0.05 were considered significant for outcome variables.

In the present study, majority of the students, 49.3% belonged to the age group 17–18 years. All the students had heard of HIV/AIDS but only 24.33% were able to write full form of HIV & 45% were able to write full form of AIDS. While the majority of the students, 83.3% named sexual route as the mode of transmission, only 31.6% named sharing of syringes and needles, from infected mother to daughter are also the modes of transmission of HIV/AIDS. Conclusions:The study established that students’ have knowledge gaps in many areas relating to HIV/AIDS. The existence of knowledge gaps may be seen as violation of students’ rights to information & education.