Huang MS; International Conference on AIDS.
Int Conf AIDS. 2000 Jul 9-14; 13: abstract no. ThPeD5532.
M. S. L. Huang, Malaysian AIDS Council, 12, Jln. 13/48A, The Boulevard Shop Office, Off Jln. Sentul., 51000 Kuala Lumpur., Malaysia, Tel.: +603-445-1033, Fax: +603-442-6133, E-mail: huang@medic.upm.edu.my
Background: As the epidemic in Malaysia takes on another dimension it is evident that rural communities are becoming vulnerable. This is accentuated by the socioeconomic conditions confronting rural women. Very often these conditions translate into the inability to make informed decisions on matters pertaining to reproductive health including HIV/AIDS.This study was design to determine the level of knowledge and attitudes towards HIV/AIDS as well as to identify thoses factors associated with it. Method: 180 women randomly selected from three rural villages in Terengganu were interview with the help of a structured questionnaire Results: Rural women were more knowledgeable on AIDS than HIV. while almost all of them knew that it could be spread through the sharing of needles less that 60% knew that it could be spread from husband to wife through sexual intercourse. Therefore it was not surprising to note that most of them felt they need not fear of being infected. Pearson correlations revealed that factors significantly associated with level of knowledge and attitude included education, age and income. Conclusion: The vulnerability of women to the infection cannot be ignored considering the recent increase u = in infection among them. Efforts must be made to improve the level of knowledge on HIV/AIDS so that not only will women be protected but their children can also be saved.
Publication Types:
Keywords:
- Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome
- Attitude
- Child
- Female
- HIV Infections
- HIV Seropositivity
- Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice
- Humans
- Knowledge
- Malaysia
- Questionnaires
- Reproductive Medicine
- Rural Population
Other ID:
UI: 102242159
From Meeting Abstracts