Abstract

AIDS is an health problem without a curable treatment, so the preventive measures against it are very important. The aim of this study was to determine the freshmen’s knowledge about AIDS and attitudes towards patient with AIDS. This descriptive study carried out on 172 (93.0%) freshmen at the School of Health Services of Ondokuz Mayis University between May 10 to16, 2005 by applying a self-administered questionnaire. Of the participants, 103 (59.9%) stated that they had enough knowledge about AIDS. All of the students believed that AIDS could be transmitted by sexual intercourse but of them, 24 (14.0%) known that AIDS could transmit from mother to the newborn by breastfeeding, 169 (%98.3) reported those with a sexually transmitted disease were risk groups for AIDS and 52 (30.2%) stated that those residing in public residencies were not at risk of AIDS. Under the circumstances of working in the same place, 95 (55.2%) of the students stated that they would support the person with AIDS. When the situation in which whether the students would like to send their children to the same school as the children having AIDS or not was questioned, 71 (41.3%) of them stated that they would send. According to the data obtained in this study, it was concluded that the students who would be future health care workers did not have sufficient knowledge about the transmission and the risk group of AIDS, as well as the preventive measures against it.

Key words: AIDS, knowledge level, attitude

Article Language: Turkish English