title: Attitudes of health care providers to persons living with HIV/AIDS in Lagos State, Nigeria.
abstract: This study was conducted to examine the knowledge, beliefs and attitudes of nurses and laboratory technologists towards people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWA) and the factors responsible for these attitudes. Information was elicited from 254 randomly selected nurses and laboratory technologists from 15 government owned health facilities in Lagos State with the use of a structured questionnaire. Results indicate that most of the respondents (96.3%) had moderate to good knowledge of HIV/AIDS. Respondents' level of knowledge was influenced by the level of formal education attained, length of practice, gender and attendance at refresher courses on HIV/AIDS (p < 0.05). In contrast, respondents' age, occupation and religion did not significantly influence their level of knowledge (p > 0.05). Attitude towards PLWA was poor. Some (55.9%) of the health workers felt that PLWAs are responsible for their illness, while 35.4% felt that they deserve the punishment for their sexual misbehaviours. Only 52.8% of the respondents expressed willingness to work in the same office with a PLWA, while only 18.0% would accept to visit or encourage their children to visit a PLWA, probably because of the fear of contagion. It is, therefore, essential that health care providers be properly informed in order to improve their quality of care for PLWAs.
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Health, Lagos University Teaching Hospital, P.O. Box 2088, Lagos, Nigeria. sylviaadebajo@hotmail.com
authors.forename: Sylvia Bolanle
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: Adebajo
authors.forename: Abisola O
authors.initials: AO
authors.lastname: Bamgbala
authors.forename: Muriel A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Oyediran
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D019353:Endemic Diseases; D005260:Female; D015658:HIV Infections; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D017056:Medical Laboratory Personnel / Q000523:psychology*; D009549:Nigeria; D009723:Nurse-Patient Relations; D009740:Nursing Staff / Q000523:psychology*; D011635:Public Health Administration; D011788:Quality of Life; D011897:Random Allocation; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires