title: Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice of Clerical Students with Respect to HIV/AIDS in Iran, 2011.
abstract: In this study, knowledge and attitude of Iranian clerical students toward HIV and AIDS was assessed. Through a cross-sectional study, 367 clerical students were surveyed, in convenience sampling method, in the Qom seminary in 2011, utilizing a self-administered structured questionnaire. The questionnaire was piloted on 20 clerical student volunteers, internal consistency measured with Cronbach's alpha was 0.89. Participants' scores of knowledge and attitude were calculated out of 100. The level of knowledge in 37.33 % of participants was good (scores >80), whereas 46.05 and 16.62 % had moderate (40 < scores ≤ 80) and poor (scores ≤40) levels of knowledge, respectively. The mean score of knowledge and attitude was 58.29 (95 % CI 56.11-60) and 77.26 (95 % CI 75.92-78.59) out of 100, respectively. A significant correlation was observed between level of knowledge and attitude (r = 0.33, P < 0.001). Knowledge score appeared to be significantly higher in women compared to men (p = 0.04). With an increase in age, the level of knowledge significantly decreased (r = -0.10, P = 0.02). We could also detect a statistically significant relationship between attending educational courses on HIV/AIDS and inclusion of HIV/AIDS topics in the individual's sermons (P < 0.001). Although clerical students had shown some sort of positive attitudes toward HIV, their knowledge still needs to be improved to enable them to deliver more accurate information to the community during the course of their speeches. Having HIV-related courses as part of their curriculum or aside may contribute a lot to this.
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Bio-statistics, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Mansour
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Shamsipour
authors.affiliation: Regional Knowledge Hub, and WHO Collaborating Centre for HIV Surveillance, Institute for Futures Studies in Health, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran.|Research Center for Modeling in Health, Institute for Futures Studies in Health, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran.
authors.forename: Razieh
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Khajehkazemi
authors.affiliation: Regional Knowledge Hub, and WHO Collaborating Centre for HIV Surveillance, Institute for Futures Studies in Health, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran.|Research Center for Modeling in Health, Institute for Futures Studies in Health, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran.
authors.forename: Ali Akbar
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Haghdoost
authors.affiliation: Iranian Association of Medical Law, Tehran, Iran.|Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), Khartoum, Sudan.
authors.forename: Hamidreza
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Setayesh
authors.affiliation: Cultural Unit, Art University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Sajjad
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: KarimanMajd
authors.affiliation: Regional Knowledge Hub, and WHO Collaborating Centre for HIV Surveillance, Institute for Futures Studies in Health, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran. Mostafavi@pasteur.ac.ir.|Department of Epidemiology, Pasteur Institute of Iran, No. 69, Pasteur Ave., 1316943551, Tehran, Iran. Mostafavi@pasteur.ac.ir.
authors.forename: Ehsan
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Mostafavi
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002977:Clergy / Q000193:education* / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000523:psychology*; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D007492:Iran; D008297:Male; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: AIDS; Attitude; Clerical student; HIV; Iran; Islam; Knowledge