A Study on Awareness about HIV/AIDS among School Going Adolescent Girls (14 19 years) of Kanpur Nagar

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1 Feb. 2012, Volume 9, No. 2 (Serial No. 87), pp Journal of US-China Medical Science, ISSN , USA D DAVID PUBLISHING A Study on Awareness about HIV/AIDS among School Going Adolescent Girls Bano Mehar, Sharma R. P., Martolia D. S., Varma Punit, Goyal Pooja and Barman Santosh Department of Community Medicine, GSVM Medical College, Kanpur, India Abstract: Background: Adolescence in girls is the vulnerable period to get involved in high risk sexual behaviour.unprotected sexual activity can expose young women to the risk of unintended teenage pregnancy, unwanted child-bearing and abortions, as well as RTIs/STIs including HIV/AIDS.Premarital sexual activity leading to adolescent pregnancy provoke negative response from teachers, adversely affect school performance and lead to drop-out. Objectives: (a) To know about their knowledge status regarding modes of transmission of HIV/AIDS. (b) To assess the knowledge regarding prevention/control of HIV/AIDS. Material and methods: The study was conducted in the period September 2010 to August 2011 on the 744 school going adolescent girls (344 from Hindi medium and 400 from English medium) selected through Multistage Random Sampling Technique. Results: 53.95% girls responded that HIV/AIDS is transmitted by sharing needles followed by sexual relations with multiple partners (51.36%) % girls were unaware about the methods of prevention/control of HIV/AIDS. Conclusion: In the present study, the level of awareness among the school going adolescent girls regarding different modes of transmission of HIV/AIDS and prevention/ control of HIV/AIDS is inadequate which justifies the need of awareness campaigns in the schools. At the same time, there is a need to targeting school going adolescent girls to further interrupt the transmission of HIV/AIDS in the community. Key words: Adolescent girls, awareness, HIV/AIDS. 1. Introduction Adolescence is a phase of rapid physical growth and development along with physiological and behavioural maturity.nearly one in every six persons is adolescent and 85% adolescents live in developing countries [1]. There are 1.21 billion adolescents aged years in the world, the largest ever number in the history of mankind.population in this age-group is estimated to continue to increase until the year 2040, to finally reach 1.23 billion [2]. In India, adolescents form 21.4% of the total population (National Youth Policy 2000). It is estimated that there are almost 200 million adolescents (15 23 years) in India and this age-group will constitute 214 million by 2020 [2]. Adolescent girls in the age-group years account for million (10.5% of total population) [3]. Corresponding author: Bano Mehar, resident, research field: community medicine. meharbano1204@gmail.com. Adolescent girls of today are the mothers of tomorrow those largely responsible to shape the future of family, community and the nation. They have simple and crucial reproductive health needs menstrual hygiene, contraception, safety from sexually transmitted infections/diseases and HIV/AIDS. They have poor access to scientific information regarding above issues. Wide communication gap exists between parents and the adolescent girls especially on these issues.the habits and behaviour picked up during adolescence too have life-long adverse impact. Ignorance and social taboos regarding reproductive health and sexual maturity among the adolescent girls too influence these issues to a great extent. Together, all these lead to a number of problems like anaemia, unsafe abortions, miscarriage, sexual exploitation, increased vulnerability to sexually transmitted infections including HIV/AIDS which in turn influence adversely their parenthood life also.

2 108 A Study on Awareness about HIV/AIDS among School Going Adolescent Girls Majority of the victims of HIV/AIDS are very young (<30 years).young people aged years accounted for an estimated 45% of new HIV/AIDS infections in 2007 [4]. Promotion of safe sex practices and prevention of high risk behaviour by health education to school children can be considered as the most cost effective way of combating today s world pandemic, i.e., HIV/AIDS, as school children are easily accessible. 2. Material and Methods To select the adolescent girls in the age group yeas, Multistage Random Sampling Technique was applied. At the first stage of sampling, from the list of all the schools of Kanpur Nagar upto 12th standard having girl students in the age group of years, seven schools were selected using Simple Random Sampling Technique. To give representation to all the ages of the study age group in the study sample, one section of each of the classes IX, X, XI & XII were selected from the selected schools at the second stage of sampling using Simple Random Sampling Technique. To obtain data, management and the Principal of schools were approached for permission and teacher in charge of the respective classes of these schools were consulted to conduct the present study.information was obtained by using interview method.data from all the adolescent girls students in the age group years of the selected sections of schools were collected on a predesigned and pretested questionnaire and the collected data was classified, tabulated and analysed by using percentages on MS excel. 2.1 Exclusion Criteria Girls < 14 years and > 19 years were not included Girls who were either absent or did not co-operate despite repeated visits to the schools were also not included. 2.2 Results and Observations (Tables 1 6) Majority of adolescent girls (54.97%) were in the age-group years, 92.34% were Hindus, 64.11% belonged to general category. Most of the girls belonged to social class III and IV, i.e., 44.23% and 33.33% respectively. Majority of girls (93.68%) in the present study were aware about HIV/AIDS while 6.32% were unaware about HIV/AIDS. Table 1 Bio-social profile of adolescent girls (N = 744). Age (in years) Number % Religion number % Hindu Muslim Sikh Christian Others Caste Number % General OBC SC ST Social class Number % I II III IV V As per modified Kuppuswamy classification [5] updated Table 2 Awareness among adolescent girls about HIV/AIDS (N = 744). Awareness Number Present Absent

3 A Study on Awareness about HIV/AIDS among School Going Adolescent Girls 109 Table 3 Awareness status about HIV/AIDS among Hindi medium and English medium adolescent school girls (N = 744). Adolescent girls English medium schools Hindi medium schools Awareness Present Absent Total (95.75%) (4.25%) (100.00%) (91.27%) (8.73%) (100.00%) Total Χ 2 = 6.25, C.I. = 95%, d.f. = 1, p < % adolescent girls from English medium schools and 91.27% from Hindi medium schools were aware about HIV/AIDS and by applying x 2 test, the difference in the awareness level was found to be statistically significant (p < 0.05). It is observed that in the opinion of 71.16% girls HIV/AIDS is caused by a virus and in the opinion of 30.70% HIV/AIDS is curable and 56.67% girls responded that vaccine is available for HIV/AIDS. It is observed that in the opinion of 53.95% girls who were aware about HIV/AIDS, it is transmitted by sharing needles/syringes followed by sexual relations with multiple partners (51.36%), from infected mother to child (43.90%), mosquito bite (10.47%), sneezing/coughing (8.32%), casual contact (6.60%) and sharing utensils (2.73%). Only 17.93% girls did not know about the modes of transmission of HIV/AIDS. Regarding prevention/control of HIV/AIDS 29.12% Table 4 Awareness among adolescent girls regarding general aspects of HIV/AIDS (N = 697). HIV/AIDS is caused by a virus Number % Yes No HIV/AIDS is curable Number % Yes No Vaccine is available for HIV/AIDS Number % Yes No Table 5 Awareness among adolescent girls regarding modes of transmission of HIV/AIDS and prevention/control of HIV/AIDS (N = 697). Modes of Transmission* Number % Sharing needles Sexual relation with multiple partners From infected mother to child Mosquito bite Sneezing/coughing Casual contact Sharing utensils Don t know Modes of prevention/control of HIV/AIDS* Number % To consult doctors Condom use Having single sexual partner Safe blood transfusion Don t know *Multiple responses Table 6 Source of information about HIV/AIDS among adolescent girls (N = 697). Source* Number % Family members Relatives Friends School teachers Health professionals Media (T.V, newspapers etc.) Others (books, internet) *Multiple responses adolescent girls held the view that HIV/AIDS is preventable by taking consultation of doctors followed by condom use (28.69%), having single sexual partner (15.78%) and safe blood transfusion (13.34%) % girls were not aware about the methods of prevention/control of HIV/AIDS. In the majority of girls aware about HIV/AIDS, source of information about HIV/AIDS were school teachers (40.89%) followed by media (32.71%), family members (18.08%), friends (10.47%), health professionals (10.04%), others (7.17%) and relatives (0.86%).

4 110 A Study on Awareness about HIV/AIDS among School Going Adolescent Girls 3. Discussion In the present study, 93.68% adolescent girls were aware about HIV/AIDS which is almost similar to the observations made by Ratna Mazumdar and S. K. Ganguli [6] and Mittal Prajapati et al. [7]. In the study by Ratna Majumdar and S. K. Ganguli [6], in Pune 85.60% girls were aware of HIV/AIDS while in the study by Mittal Prajapati et al. [7] in Ahmedabad 93.27% girls were aware about HIV/AIDS.In the studies by N. Gupta et al [8] in rural school girls in Delhi the corresponding figure (39.5% ) was very low as compared to the present study and this could be attributed to the fact that the latter study was carried out in the rural area where awareness towards HIV/AIDS might be poor due to inadequate IEC activities.the level of awareness among adolescent girls in English medium schools was more (95.75%) as compared to that 91.27% in those from Hindi medium schools and by applying chi square test, difference was found to be statistically significant. In the present study, 71.16% of the adolescent girls aware about HIV/AIDS knew that it is caused by a virus, 30.70% responded that HIV/AIDS is curable and 56.67% responded that a vaccine is available for HIV/AIDS. In a study by S. K. Bhasin et al. [9] in Delhi 30.03% adolescent girls responded that HIV/AIDS is a curable disease and it is similar to the findings of the present study. In the opinion of 53.95% adolescent girls HIV/AIDS is transmitted by sharing needles/syringes followed by sexual relations with multiple partners (51.36%), infected mother to child (43.90%). In the present study, mosquito bite (10.47%) sneezing/coughing (8.32%), casual contact (6.60%), sharing utensils (2.73%) were also reported as modes of transmission of HIV/AIDS which is contrary to the facts and this wrong opinion among the adolescent girls needs to be done away. Surprisingly, 17.93% girls were not aware about the modes of transmission of HIV/AIDS and this needs to be targeted for intense IEC activities while in a study by S. K. Bhasin et al. [9] in Delhi in the opinion of 92.49% girls HIV/AIDS was transmitted by having sexual relationship with multiple partners, 74.47% girls by sharing needles/syringes and in the opinion of 89.18% girls from infected mother to child in the womb. Regarding knowledge about the prevention/control of HIV/AIDS, maximum 29.12% were of the opinion that HIV/AIDS can be prevented by consulting doctors, 28.69% by use of condom, 15.78% by having single sexual partner. It is surprising to know 46.92% were not aware about the modes of prevention/control of HIV/AIDS which again justifies the need of intense IEC activities towards this segment. In the present study, most important source of information were teachers (40.89%) followed by media (32.71%), family members (18.08%), friends (10.47%), health professionals (10.04%) and relatives (0.86%) while in a study by S. K. Bhasin et al. [9] in Delhi television, magazine and news papers were the most important source of information regarding HIV/AIDS. Also, Mittal Prajapati et al. [7] in Ahmedabad also observed that common source of information for HIV/AIDS was media, i.e., television (53.35%), radio (24.33%), newspaper (16.58%) and internet (2.41%). 4. Conclusion In the present study, the overall awareness among the school going adolescent girls with regard to HIV/AIDS is quite high (93.68%) but at the same time, their knowledge regarding different modes of transmission of HIV/AIDS is inadequate. Moreover, some of them have wrong idea about the transmission of HIV/AIDS, i.e., through mosquito bite (10.47%) sneezing/coughing (8.32%), casual contact (6.60%), sharing utensils (2.73%).Their knowledge regarding different modes of prevention/control of HIV/AIDS is also far from adequate. Thus, there is a wide knowledge gap among the school going adolescent girls with regard to modes of transmission and prevention/ control of HIV/AIDS. This knowledge gap needs to be filled up by holding HIV/AIDS awareness campaigns in the schools with active involvement of students, teachers and the parents. The reproductive

5 A Study on Awareness about HIV/AIDS among School Going Adolescent Girls 111 and sexual stage of adolescent girls, coupled with their immature and poor decision taking capacity regarding their problems and also with lack of forceful advocacy strategies in the community enhances their vulnerability to risky behaviours. So, the decision makers, traditional authorities and opinion leaders at various levels also need to jointly aim at ensuring that all the resources and tools support strategies, programmes and activities of the national HIV/AIDS policy. References [1] UNFPA and adolescence, available online at: http//hsphharvrdedu/taken /rp139.pdf, [2] Adolescent Health Committee, Reaching the Unreached, issue 01, p. 12, available online at: FOGSI, [3] Tenth Five Year Plan: Adolescent girls in the age group years who account for million, Plan V-2ch 2.11.pdf. [4] Ten facts on adolescent health, available online at: features/fact files/adolescent health, accessed on May, [5] B. Kuppuswamy, Manual of Socio-economic Status Scale, Urban, pp [6] Majumdar Ratna and S. K. Ganguli, A study of adolescent girls in Pune, Health and Population Perspective and Issues 23 (2) (2000) [7] Prajapati Mittal, D. V. Bala and Tiwari Hemant, A study of nutritional status and high risks behaviour of adolescents in Ahmedabad: A cross-sectional study, Healthline 2 (1) (2011). [8] N. Gupta, A. K. Mathur, M. P. Singh and N. C. Saxena, Reproductive health awareness of school-going, unmarried, rural adolescents, Indian J Paediatr 71 (9) (2004) [9] S. K. Bhasin, K. Pandit, A. T. Kannan and K. K. Dubey, Impact of IEC intervention on knowledge regarding AIDS amongst senior secondary school children of East Delhi, Indian Journal of Community Medicine XXIV (4) (1999).