Investigation on AIDS related knowledge and behavior of youth students in Taizhou City, 2017

ObjectiveTo investigate the awareness of knowledge about prevention and control of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome(AIDS), sexual behavior, and willingness to accept HIV test and acceptance of test among young students in Taizhou Prefecture of Zhejiang Province in 2017, and to provide evidence for conducting effective health education on AIDS among the students.

MethodsOur survey was conducted among young students from one undergraduate college and one technical college in Taizhou Prefecture of Zhejiang Province, where multi-stage clusters sampling was implemented to collect information.

ResultsA total of 1 210 young students were recruited.The proportion of them having promotion service of AIDS prevention in the recent year was 52.1%, and the awareness rate of knowledge about prevention and control of AIDS was 79.5%.The proportion of students having sexual experience was 8.9%, which was higher in male students than in female students (13.3% vs.6.1%, χ²=18.614, P < 0.001), and higher in technical school students than in undergraduate students (13.4%% vs.6.6 %, χ²=15.373, P < 0.001).The average age of the first sexual behavior was (18.65±1.68) years, and the proportion of condom usage during the first sexual experience was 70.4%.The proportions of sexual behavior with fixed heterosexual partners, non-commercial casual sexual partners, commercial sexual partners and homosexual partners in the recent years were 50.0%, 14.8%, 0.17% and 3.2%, respectively, and the proportions of always using condoms during sexual behavior with these four types of sexual partners above in recent years were 64.8%, 37.5%, 100.0% and 50.0%, respectively.And 84.7% of the participants were willing to accept HIV test, but only 3.1% of them had been tested for HIV.A total of 1 185 participants received blood test during our study, and both HIV and syphilis were not detected.

ConclusionThe overall awareness rate of knowledge about prevention and control of AIDS and the rate of condom use are low among young students in Taizhou Prefecture.It is necessary to carry out targeted health education activities on AIDS prevention and control, so as to improve their self-care consciousness.