title: HIV/AIDS awareness, knowledge and practice in patients with sexually transmitted diseases.
abstract: Patients diagnosed to have sexually transmitted diseases in one month at the Adigrat Health Centre were interviewed to determine knowledge about means of transmission and prevention of HIV/AIDS and practice of high risk behaviour. In this study done in October and November 1992, of a total of 812 patients aged between 15-45 years, 60 patients (7.4%) had sexually transmitted diseases. Male to female ratio was 1.7:1. Fifty nine out of sixty patients (98.3%) knew the sexual route of HIV/AIDS transmission. 43 patients (71.7%) knew the preventive role of condoms, and 34 patients (56.7%) knew the preventive role of monogamous relationships. Only 12 patients (20%) knew nothing of the mode of transmission. An association between the knowledge of preventive methods of HIV/AIDS transmission and their practice was found only for condoms: 14/43 (33%) out of the aware group, 1/17 (6.5%) in the unaware group used condoms occasionally (P = 0.0457), whereas there was no difference between single partner-aware and single partner-unaware group in the percent with single sexual partner (41.2% vs 30.8%, P = 0.57). Though there is awareness of the existence of HIV/AIDS, its main route of transmission, and methods of prevention to some extent, a problem lies in the difficulty of changing individual sexual behavior. With the epidemic of HIV/AIDS sweeping the country, health education programmes must be evaluated for success in bringing about sexual behavioural change in the population as well as for success in imparting knowledge.
authors.affiliation: Adigrat Hospital, Tigray, Ethiopia.
authors.forename: D Z
authors.initials: DZ
authors.lastname: Ashebir
mesh_terms: D000163:Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000635:transmission; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D017280:Condoms; D005002:Ethiopia; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012747:Sexual Partners; D012749:Sexually Transmitted Diseases / Q000150:complications / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires