Survey of Knowledge, Attitudes and Sexual Practices Relating to HIV Infection/AIDS among Nigerian Secondary School Students

Abstract

The research was carried out to study the AIDS-related knowledge, attitudes and sexual behaviour of 540 students selected by the multistage sampling technique from four Nigerian secondary schools. Eighty-three per cent of the students knew AIDS was transmitted sexually, but the percentage of those aware of other modes of transmission' was much lower. Attitudes were poor, as 372 (82.7%) students would dislike having someone with AIDS near them. First sexual experience occurred at 15.8 years for males and 16.3 in females. Of the 450 students studied, 159 (35.3%) had experienced sexual intercourse before. Of the 120 students (26.7%) who became sexually active a month before the survey, 34 (28.3%) had multiple sexual partners. Constituent condom use was reported in only 22 (19.8%) of the sexually active students. The use of unreliable methods for the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases was common. There is an urgent need to intensify ongoing AIDS campaign especially school-based AIDS education programmes to secondary school students before their behaviour become fixed. (Afr J Reprod Health 1999; 3[2]: 15-24)


Key Words: HIV, AIDS, students, knowledge, attitude, practice