Improving Awareness on HIV/AIDS among Adolescents of East Godavari District, Andhra Pradesh

Despite the efforts of the governments on HIV / AIDS awareness it has not been received aptly due to social factors and the stigma attached to the disease. More often the awareness programs are termed under reproductive health education and misunderstood. Most are reluctant to impart awareness due to embarrassment, discomfort with the issues or a lack of knowledge about sexuality. The objective of the present study is to contribute improvement of HIV / AIDS awareness among adolescents of East Godavari district in the context of sexual reproductive rights. A pre-post design has been adopted where in 250 adolescents (mean age 14.08; SD=0.68) from 8 Government High Schools of East Godavari district were assessed prior to and after the intervention. Information on HIV / AIDS education intervention was based on the works of Talking About HIV / AIDS Issues. Participants were assessed using questionnaire on level of awareness on HIV / AIDS issues like pubertal changes, STI/RTI and Human Immunodeficiency Virus / Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (HIV/AIDS). Results show that mean scores in the pubertal changes pre-test was 5.11 and 8.13 in post-test, which increased significantly (t = 35.68, p = 0.001). The mean score in the awareness on STI/RTI pre-test was 3.12 and 6.33 in post-test, which increased significantly (t = 32.53, p = 0.001). The mean score in the awareness on HIV/AIDS pre-test was 4.95 and 7.45 in post-test, which increased significantly (t = 21.79, p = 0.001). The study findings suggest that the intervention improved the participants’ awareness on HIV / AIDS issues.