HIV STIGMATIZATION AMOUNG MEDICAL STUDENTS: RELATIONSHIP WITH THEIR KNOWLEDGE OF HIV

Ogbuefi A. P., Okonta R. T.

Scientific adviser: D.Med.Sci., professor V. M. Mitsura

Educational Institution

«Gomel State Medical University» Gomel, Republic of Belarus

Introduction

HIV and AIDS remains one of the many problems of the global public health.

Medical workers can cause some stigmatization of the HIV infected patients. That's why medical students as future doctors should avoid causing stigma of these patients [2].

The aim

To determine if knowledge and awareness of HIV affects the attitude of medical students to people living with the disease.

Material and research method

The study involved 50 students of Gomel State Medical University, from 1^st to 6^th year of study, 30 (60 %) were females and 20 (40 %) were male. 54 % were from India, 22 % — from Sri Lanka, 14 % were Nigerians. The rest were from Lebanon, Brazil, Pakistan. The av­erage age was 21.8 years. The study was conducted using an anonymous sociological survey, also an adapted questionnaire [3] consisting of a total sum of 45 questions was distributed, di­vided into 3 tables which included knowledge, comfortability and attitude. Table 1 includes 25 questions showing a right or false answer (1 point for any correct answer & 0 points for any wrong one). Table 2 includes 10 questions assessing the attitude of the students (5 points for total agreement, 4 points for agreement, 3 points «not sure», 2 point «not in agreement», 1 point for being in total disagreement. Table 3 includes 10 questions (3 points for total com­fortability, 2 point for not being sure, 1 point for discomfortability). Statistical analysis was performed with the use of chi-squared test and Spearman’s rank correlation.

Research results and discussion

In the category of Knowledge had markings of between 1-25. Highest score rating 20­25, was scored by 5 students which represents 10 %. Average 15-19, was scored by 14 stu­dents, which represents 28 %, the low knowledge was 1-14, was scored by 31 students which represents 62 %. So, only 38 % of all students had a good knowledge. 10 % of all the students with the highest score where from 4-6 year, 38 % of the students with the lowest score was from 1 -3 year.

In the category of Attitude, the markings were in the range of 1-50: poor (1-10), bad (11-20), average (21-30), acceptable (31-40), excellent (41-50). Based on the questionnaires collected from 50 students, 98% of them had a good attitude, which is from 31 to 50. Regard­less of the course of their studies, 24 had excellent scores. Of these, 62.5 % were from 4-5y, while 37.5 % where from 1-3y.

To investigate possible correlation between knowledge of medicals students and their at­titude towards patient with HIV the Spearman's rank correlation was done. There was a posi­tive correlation of moderate strength (Rs = 0.40, p = 0.004).

Conclusion

Only 38 % of students from medical university had good and excellent knowledge about HIV. But their attitude to people living with HIV/AIDS was high: 98 % having good or excel­lent attitude. The attitude in older students was also better than in those younger, but not sig­nificant, p = 0.293. We found the positive correlation of moderate strength between knowledge and attitude which was Rs = 0.4, p = 0.004.

Our data shows that medical education increases the knowledge about HIV and AIDS in medical students and also shows that regardless of the knowledge of medicine attitude would always be good.

Literatura

1. https://www.who.int/ru/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/hiv-aids.

2. Chew, B. H. Assessing HIV/AIDS Knowledge and Stigmatizing Attitudes among Medical Students in Universiti Putra Malaysia / B. H. Chew, A. T. Cheong // Med J Malaysia. — 2013. — Vol. 68(1). — P. 24-29.

3. https://hivhealthclearinghouse.unesco.org/library/documents/handbook-evaluating-hiv-education.