title: Awareness and attitudes towards HIV/AIDS among residents of Kandy, Sri Lanka.
abstract: Currently, interventions for HIV/AIDS control in Sri Lanka are only carried out among the most-at-risk populations. This study was conducted to identify the level of awareness and stigma-related attitudes among the general population of Sri Lanka. A cross-sectional study was carried out among 869 residents of 18-64 years of age in Kandy, Sri Lanka. A self-administered questionnaire was utilised to obtain information about stigma, discrimination and HIV/AIDS-related knowledge. Chi-square test and multivariate analysis were applied to find possible associations between HIV-related variables and socio-demographic indicators. Response rate was 82.0%. Overall, 93.5% of the participants have heard of HIV/AIDS but the knowledge on HIV/AIDS was low with an average score of 51.7%, no statistically significant difference between genders (p = 0.352). Only 58.1% were aware that a condom was an effective tool for its prevention. There were many misconceptions related to epidemiology of HIV/AIDS. The participants showed more positive attitudes towards HIV/AIDS and people living with HIV/AIDS (PLHIV) for all questionnaire items except for those listed under shame and blame. Positive attitudes towards PLHIV were observed to be greater among those with a better HIV/AIDS-related knowledge score. There was no significant association between the attitudes towards PLHIV and socio-demographic characteristics such as ethnicity and religion. There is a greater need of making attempts towards educating the public regarding HIV/AIDS to eliminate misconceptions prevalent in the society. Stigma-related attitudes are mainly due to shame and blame associated with the disease. As the attitudes towards PLHIV were more positive among those with a better HIV/AIDS-related knowledge score, targeted HIV/AIDS-related health education interventions maybe recommended in this regard.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Community Medicine, Faculty of Medicine , University of Peradeniya , Peradeniya , Sri Lanka.
authors.forename: Samidi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Navaratna
authors.forename: Koji
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kanda
authors.forename: Samath D
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Dharmaratne
authors.forename: Sampath
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tennakoon
authors.forename: Ananda
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Jayasinghe
authors.forename: Niroshan
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Jayasekara
authors.forename: Katsutoshi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Nagano
authors.forename: Yoshihide
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Obayashi
authors.forename: Asuna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Arai
authors.forename: Hiko
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Tamashiro
mesh_terms: D000163:Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome / Q000523:psychology; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001294:Attitude to Health; D001364:Awareness; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000523:psychology* / Q000635:transmission; D006266:Health Education / Q000379:methods; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence; D012307:Risk Factors; D057545:Social Stigma; D013188:Sri Lanka / Q000453:epidemiology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: Sri Lanka; attitudes: stigma; awareness; general population