ASSESSMENT OF AWARENESS LEVEL OF MEDICAL STUDENTS ON HIV PREVENTION AND TREATMENT
Dr.B.Sharmila MD*, Dr Malar Sivaraman Md and Dr Keerthana
ABSTRACT
HIV is an emerging world health problem. India is one of the countries experiencing a sharp increase in the number of infections. As medical students are the budding doctors, they should take the sole responsibility to protect the society from this dreadful disease. With this in mind the study was framed and analysed.
Objective
To assess the Students knowledge, attitude and awareness about HIV treatment and prevention.
To analyse whether a change in the existing curriculum is needed.
Settings and Design: questionnaire study. Material and Methods: This study was conducted amongst three hundred students from Three batches of undergraduate students of Government Medical College, Chennai belonging to first year, second year, third year MBBS were selected for the study and were designated as group a, b and c A questionnaire containing twenty questions were used and students were asked to select the option which they thought was appropriate. The purpose of the study was explained. They were asked to mark the most appropriate answer from the options provided. The data was statistically analysed. Statistical Analysis Used: Two sample binomial proportion test. Results: On analysis, from hundredstudents of the first year, 52% of them had knowledge on treatment aspect and 47% of students had awareness on HIV prevention. From two hundred students of second and third year 82.5% of them had knowledge on treatment aspect and 72% of students had awareness on HIV prevention. Conclusion: From this study, First year students were lacking knowledge in the prevention and treatment of HIV. Hence a awareness programme in the medical curriculum is needed from first year onwards in order to improve the overall knowledge about HIV prevention and treatment and priorities should be for the introduction of safer techniques.
Keywords: Awareness, Prevention, treatment, Knowledge, HIV.
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