Exploring factors influencing the perspective regarding HIV transmission and prevention among college students in India

ABSTRACT Although many studies have been conducted to assess the knowledge and practices among healthcare workers, high-risk groups or medical students, very few studies have been conducted among college students from non-medical backgrounds. Our study aimed to assess the knowledge, attitudes and perception about human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) among the college students of the Mumbai region and to determine their association with the socio-demographic variables. A cross-sectional online and offline questionnaire survey was conducted among 401 college students from the month of August 2022 to October 2022. Mean score and percentage were used to analyse the data. About 82.04% of participants exhibited good knowledge about HIV transmission and prevention, while 46.38% had a positive attitude towards HIV. Age, gender, religion and education had not influenced either knowledge or attitude significantly. Overall, knowledge score had a weak positive correlation with attitude of the participants. Our study findings indicate that a holistic approach covering knowledge, psychological and societal health aspects is necessary among youth in India for positive changes in people’s behaviour and achieving HIV prevention and management goals which will benefit public health at large.