title: [Knowledge and attitudes about AIDS and sex behavior among school and university students of main urban cities of the country].
abstract: A national survey was conducted interviewing 4,522 students and 334 teachers. The result can be extrapolated to young people over 15 years of age and living in the large urban centers of the country. Thus the results can be extrapolated to approximately 330,000 persons. A good theoretical knowledge was detected but invalidated by erroneous beliefs, such as believing that A.I.D.S. is not contagious if relations are held within the same social group, that can be avoided by post-coital genital cleaning or by inquiring about the partner's previous sexual conduct. Forty four two per cent of the surveyed student are sexually active, and of this 32.6% of the men and 10.8% of the women have sexual relations with others outside their regular partners. The 72.9% believe that there is no possibility of A.I.D.S. contagion or that is very low. The erroneous beliefs, the high level of sexual activity the precocious initiation of sexual activity with prostitutes prostitutes and promiscuity among the surveyed, together with the generalized and false perception that there are not possibilities of contagiouness confirm that our youth is in very high risk level of contracting A.I.D.S. virus. Government politic is required to provide a global solution to this problem.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Obstetricia y Ginecología, Hospital Clínico, J.J. Aguirre, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Chile.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Bernal
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Bonacic
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Edwards
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Méndez
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Guler
mesh_terms: D000163:Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002677:Chile; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012736:Sex Education; D012725:Sexual Behavior; D014505:Urban Population
vernacular_title: Conocimientos y actitudes acerca del SIDA y conducta sexual de escolares y universitarios de las principales ciudades urbanas del pais.