Knowledge, Attitude and Practices Related to Human Immunodeficiency Virus and Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome Among Students in Universiti Putra Malaysia

The aim of this study was to determine the level of knowledge, attitude and practices related to HIV/AIDS among the students in UPM and to determine the relationship between their knowledge, attitudes and practices. A cross-sectional study design which employed two stage simple random sampling technique proportionate to size was used to select the sample. The list of all 23,202 students of UPM served as the sampling frame. The sample size was 1920. The data was collected from 10th 0f August to 31st of October 2007 using a structured pre-tested questionnaire. The response rate was 92.3 % in which, out of 1773 respondents, 57.3% were female, 52.5% were Malays and 58.2% were Muslims. The overall mean knowledge scores of the respondents was 20.11 out of the maximum score of 34 while the mean attitude scores was 24.09 out of the maximum score of 35,and the mean practice scores of the respondents was 4.14 out of the maximum score of 7. The results of the GLM (General Linear Model) and Post Hoc Test showed that knowledge of the respondents on HIV/AIDS was significantly associated with age (p = 0.001), sex (p = 0.004), educational level (p = 0.04), faculty or institute (p = 0.001), religion (p = 0.008), mother’s occupation (p = 0.045), mother’s educational level (p = 0.039) and family income (p = 0.001). The results also showed that the attitude of respondents on HIV/AIDS was significantly associated with faculty or institute (p = 0.001), father’s occupation (p = 0.028) and the practice of the respondents with regards to HIV/AIDS was significantly associated with sex (p = 0.001), faculty or institute (p = 0.001) and marital status (p = 0.009). The results show that there was a significant but weak and positive relationship between the total knowledge scores and the total attitude scores of the respondents (r = 0.24, p = 0.001). There was also a significant but weak and negative relationship between the total knowledge scores and the total practice scores of the respondents (r = -0.059, p = 0.021). In conclusion, this study showed that the level of knowledge about HIV/AIDS among UPM students is unsatisfactory. The respondents seem to have favorable attitude on the prevention of HIV/AIDS. There was a low level of condom use (29.8 %) and voluntary HIV testing (13.48 %). However, 97.8 % of the respondents do not have multiple partners. The practice scores for Malaysian students were significantly higher than the international students. It is recommended that an educational program on HIV/AIDS prevention is to be implemented to remove some weaknesses such as the low level of knowledge, low level of condom use and voluntary HIV testing.

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