MEDIATORS OF HIV/AIDS AWARENESS AMONG PRIMARY SCHOOL PUPILS IN NIGERIA

Background: HIV/AIDS is endemic in Nigeria since the first case was reported in 1986. Several risk factors contribute to its prevalence, and the successive government has devised different programs to halt the spread. Awareness is one of those programs that helps to promote voluntary testing and prevention of HIV. The aim of this paper is to assess the level of awareness of HIV/AIDS among private and public primary school pupils in Ado-Odo, Ota, Southwest Nigeria. Methods: Questionnaire was used as the tool for data collection and p-value < 0.05 was considered significant. Multistage sampling was used to select four primary schools divided into equal numbers of private and public schools. Thereafter, simple random sampling was used to administer the questionnaire to the pupils. The research was conducted in May 2019 and SPSS 23.0 was used in the data analysis. Mediation analysis was used to build the hierarchal models that describe the interrelationship among the variables that was used to measure the level of awareness. Results: Out of 400 questionnaires distributed, 354 representing 88.5% were used for the final analysis. 173 (48.9%) and 181 (51.1%) of the primary school pupils (respondents) were males and females, respectively. The main results are given as follows: The awareness of mode of transmission was the highest and followed by knowledge of preventive measures, general knowledge of HIV/AIDS and knowledge of non-risk factors in descending order. Hierarchical regression analysis yielded two mediation models. Firstly, knowledge of preventive measures mediate the relationship between knowledge of mode of transmission and general knowledge of HIV/AIDS. Secondly, knowledge of non-risk factors mediates the relationship between knowledge of mode of transmission and general knowledge of HIV/AIDS. Conclusion: Awareness of how the infection cannot be transmitted is low which connotes stigmatization. Attitudinal changes are needed and awareness campaigns should be channeled to private primary school. Also, the hierarchical models have provided the link through which possible preventive measures could be explored. Received: June 29, 2023Accepted: July 29, 2023