Medicina comunitaria y educación para la salud

Abstracto

Does School Health Education on Voluntary Counseling and Testing Make a Significant change for HIV/AIDS Prevention? A Case of High School Students in Hossana Town, Ethiopia: A Cross Sectional Study

Feleke Doyore

Back ground: Almost three decades after the first clinical cases of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) were reported. Its epidemics killed millions of people and became a major public health problem. To halt the epidemics, HIV counseling and testing is one of the strategies. Though HIV testing is critical for behavior modification in getting support and entry point for engagement on treatment, many people are missing these opportunities. This study was aimed to consider how people are reacting for health communication on voluntary counseling and testing as HIV prevention messages using Extended Parallel Process Model (EPPM). Method: Cross-sectional study design was conducted using quantitative and qualitative methods of data collection. Structured and pre-tested self administered questionnaires were used to collect data. Simple random sampling method was used to select students from each school. Quantitative data were analyzed using SPSS version 16.0. Qualitative data was analyzed using Atlas software. Results: 78.68% (321/408) participants were found in fear control psychological responses where as 21.32% (87/408) participants were found in danger control responses. As independent predictors, self efficacy [AOR (95%CI)=4.13 (3.37 to 5.01)], response efficacy [AOR (95%CI)=3.21(6.89 to 9.09)] of HIV/AIDS, participants ever tested [AOR (95%CI)=4.31 (7.01 to 9.08)] and residence [AOR (95%CI)=4.13 (2.43 to 7.32)] were positively associated with danger response responses where as perceived susceptibility to [AOR (95%CI)=0.42 (0.44 to 0.61)] and perceived severity of [AOR (95%CI)=0.33 (0.21 to 0.74)] HIV/AIDS were negatively associated with danger response. The EPPM Model explained 70.09% of variance in this study. Conclusion: Despite higher number of students in fear control psychological responses, there is considerable gap between discriminative scores and actual behaviors. Therefore, due attention should be given to fill the gap of perception of risk of both threat and efficacy in their residence.