[Educational intervention on HIV aimed at adolescent students of "Camilo Cienfuegos" military school in Arroyo Arenas].

Abstract

Introduction: HIV infection in young people is one of the main health problems at the present time, with significant mortality and morbidity indexes and considerable costs.

Objective: to identify the level of knowledge, the sources of information and the behaviours of young students at high school in order to take educational actions that raise their knowledge on this disease and promote more healthy lifestyles.

Methods: a quasi experimental study was designed to evaluate the results of an educational intervention in 200 adolescents of "Camilo Cienfuegos" Military School located in Arroyo Arenas, Havana, which was carried out in June, 2009. Demographic variables were analyzed and the effectiveness of the educational intervention was evaluated using ratio test for independent variable analysis.

Results: of the 200 studied students, 26.5% were female and 73.5% male, aged 14-17 years. The main sources of knowledge for information about HIV infection were TV, parents, professors and posters. They presented appropriate knowledge levels about transmission pathways, etiology and therapy of the HIV; however, they poorly knew about the clinical aspects and prevention. After the intervention, their general knowledge (73 to 92%) and the knowledge on clinical aspects significantly improved (15 to 72%),as well as the knowledge about transmission(92 to 94%) and prevention of the disease (77 to 80%).

Conclusions: the implementation of a strategy to teach young people about HIV improved the knowledge about the disease in this group of patients