Journal of Behdasht dar Arseh (i.e., Health in the Field)

Abstract

Background and Aims: Health care personnel are at occupational risk of blood-transmitted pathogens such as; HBV, HCV, and HIV. Educational interventions must be designed for this vulnerable group before entering workplaces. Medical sciences universities are the best places for designing such interventions, and also, academic duration is the best time for that. Assessing current situation is considered as a primary phase of designing programs. This study has been carried out for assessing knowledge and health beliefs of Isfahan medical students toward HIV/AIDS in 2009.
Material and Methods: The present study is a cross-sectional research. All the 1st year students of Isfahan medical school (disciplines of medicine, anesthesia, and laboratory sciences) in 2009-2010 (n=175) participate in this study. Data gathering instrument were demographic questionnaire and scales (knowledge, perceived susceptibility, and perceived severity) that designed by the authors. For validity of the designed tools, two methods of face and content validity were applied using expert panel. The tools reliability was done by two methods (test-retest & internal consistency, Cronbach’s Alpha). Participation of students in research was voluntary and with informed consent. SPSS 16.0 software was used for data analysis in this research.
Results: Based on findings, 99.4% of all students have high level of knowledge about HIV/AIDS. Also, results showed 50.6% and 64.6% of samples have respectively high levels of perceived susceptibility and perceived severity. There was no significant correlation between demographic variables and main factors of research (knowledge, perceived susceptibility, and perceived severity).
Conclusion: Although, knowledge of medical students was desired and acceptable, but this result dose not means that these students do not need HIV/AIDS education. Perceived susceptibility and perceived severity of students is not acceptable, and thus educational interventions are seriously needed.