Effects of school health nursing education interventions on HIV/AIDS-related attitudes of students in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria.
OBJECTIVE
One of the greatest challenges facing school nurses is that of identifying and using appropriate strategies to meet the health education needs of adolescents in regard to prevention of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS). This study examined the effects of HIV/AIDS preventive health education with parental involvement on students' attitude toward HIV/AIDS prevention in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria.


METHODS
The study population comprised students from three of nine secondary schools in the study area. The three schools were randomly assigned as Intervention Group 1 (IG1), involving nurses only; Intervention Group 2 (IG2), involving both nurses and parents (IG2); and a control group. A pretest/post-test intervention design was used. A 29-item, validated questionnaire was the instrument for data collection. Sampling involved multistage and stratified random technique to select 120 subjects from each of the three selected schools, with a total of 360 subjects representing 8.3% of the study population. From this number, 339 (94.2%) provided sufficient data for analysis. Data analysis involved analysis of covariance and the Scheffé post hoc test determined at the .05 significance level.


RESULTS
Results show significant effect of intervention on students attitudes toward preventive measures (F = 234.27, p < .001 *). The intervention that involved nurses only was found to be a more potent strategy in providing favorable attitudes toward HIV/AIDS prevention (IG1 mean, 20.59; IG2 mean, 19.20; control mean, 12.34). Attitudes were influenced by older age but not by gender.


CONCLUSIONS
Health education efforts aimed at improving HIV/AIDS-related attitudes should not only focus on children but also on parents so that they in turn could assist to improve on health workers' efforts in educating the children.
Akpabio
Idongesit I
II
Department of Nursing Science, College of Medical Sciences, University of Calabar, Calabar, Cross River State, Nigeria. Electronic address: idongawa@yahoo.com.
Asuzu
Michael C
MC
College of Medicine, University College Hospital, Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria.
Fajemilehin
Boluwaji R
BR
College of Health Sciences, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria.
Ofi
Abosede B
AB
Department of Nursing, Faculty of Clinical Sciences, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria.
D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D001294:Attitude to Health; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000523:psychology; D006266:Health Education / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009549:Nigeria; D009726:Nurses; D010290:Parents; D011322:Primary Prevention; D012572:School Health Services; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014505:Urban Population; D055815:Young Adult