Knowledge about HIV/AIDS among University Students in Lahore

Objectives: To assess knowledge and concepts of university students about HIV/AIDS in general and its status in Pakistan. Material & Methods: A structured questionnaire was developed to assess the knowledge of university students in a cross sectional survey. The study was conducted at Punjab University Lahore. The survey was completed in 3 months duration. Data was entered and analyzed in SPSS ver: 16.0. Knowledge was assessed about etiology, high risk groups, concepts about disease transmission, prevention and their source of knowledge. Results: 500 university students were interviewed to assess knowledge about HIV /AIDS. The mean age of the respondents was 22.00 +/- 1.5 years. 68.0% were male. 92.6% of the respondents had heard about AIDS. 82.1% knew that HIV is caused by close sexual contact with infected person. 81.5% knew that HIV is caused by blood transfusion. 77.8% of the respondents believed that HIV can be transmitted by infected needle prick. 72.2% knew that HIV can be transmitted from mother to baby. Regarding knowledge about high risk groups, 82.8% had adequate knowledge about spread of HIV by commercial sex workers (CSW), multiple sexual partners, homosexuals, drug addicts. 61.8% received information about HIV/AIDS from television, 51.6% from print media, and 52.2% from internet, 24.8% from friends, 28.0% from teachers and 15.9% from parents. Conclusion: Knowledge of university students about nature of disease and mode of transmission is satisfactory. There is lack of knowledge about disease prevalence in Pakistan. Media (print and electronic) is the major source of knowledge about the disease.