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Virology research J 2017 Vol 1 Issue 2
Notes:
July 26-27, 2017 | Vancouver, Canada
WORLD CONFERENCE ON STDs, STIs & HIV/AIDS
allied
academies
Introduction
: The prevalence of HIV/AIDS in South Africa
remains worryingly high. This is in spite of numerous
programs which are aimed at reducing risk behaviour,
eliminating stigma and promoting disclosure about HIV
infections. As part of these efforts, the South African
government has mandated the integration of HIV/AIDS
education in the school curriculum. Life Orientation for
instance is a subject where students are taught the socio-
economic aspects of HIV/AIDS including while in Biology
they are taught the scientific nature of HIV/AIDS in relation
to various body systems such as the immune system and the
circulatory system.
Researchmethods
: The current study followed a quantitative
questionnaire based methodology to collect data from a
group of 291 school girls aged between 15 and 18 years. Of
these 180 were Biology students and 111 were non-Biology.
A non-probability convenience sampling approach was used
to select students to participate in the study with a view to
obtain a sample that is representative of the South African
population.
Results
: Results showed that Biology students have a
significantly higher knowledge of health literacy related to
HIV/AIDS (M = 54, SD = 20) than non-Biology students (M =
27, SD = 23), t(289) = -10.498, p = 0.001. It was also found that
the HIV/AIDS literacy of Biology students (M = 74, SD = 16)
was significantly higher than that of non-Biology students (M
= 62, SD = 19), t(289) = -5.691, p = 0.002). The self-reported
behaviours of the two groups however were not significantly
different (p = .283). Further analysis of the data showed a
significant correlation between Health Literacy and HIV/AIDS
literacy. However, both Health Literacy and HIV/AIDS literacy
did not correlate significantly with self-reported behaviour.
Data also revealed that both groups reported tendency
towards risk behaviour related to multiple sexual partners
and unprotected sex.
Conclusion:
The major finding of the current study was that
scientific knowledge related to HIV/AIDS does not always
correlate with self-reported behaviour amongst the youth.
This is in agreement with scholars (e.g. Mnguni, Abrie &
Ebersohn, 2016) who have suggested that knowledge alone
does not influence behaviour. This also echoes views that
scientific knowledge alone will not affect morality, character
and citizenship (Mnguni et al., 2016). As reported by Mnguni
et al. (2016), HIV/AIDS related behaviour could be affected
by various socio-economic factors which are context specific,
rather than scientific knowledge alone. Furthermore, it
is possible that the lack of correlation between scientific
knowledge and behaviour is due to misalignment between
school curriculum and factors affecting the society such as
HIV/AIDS. The current researchers believes that there is
an urgent need to explore the alignment between school
curriculum and HIV/AIDS education in order to ensure that
students are able to utilize scientific knowledge in their
everyday life.
e:
mngunle@usa.ac.zaThe relationship between risk behavior and scientific knowledge of HIV/AIDS amongst South African
school girls.
Lindelani Mnguni
University of South Africa, South Africa