Association of social capital and AIDS health literacy with AIDS risk perception in adolescents

Introduction: Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection has become a major health challenge in recent decades. Poor health knowledge can lead to the faster transmission of HIV in the community. This study aimed to investigate the association of social capital and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) health literacy with AIDS risk perception in Iranian adolescents. Material and methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted with 354 high school students of Kermanshah city, the west part of Iran, selected by multi-stage sampling method. Respondents filled out social capital, HIV/AIDS health literacy, and AIDS risk perception questionnaires. Data were analyzed by SPSS-18 using Pearson correlation, regression, ANOVA, and independent t-tests. Results: The mean age of respondents was 17.02 ± 0.84 years. The results of independent t-test showed that girls had more scores in family social capital (p = 0.009) and school social capital domains (p = 0.001).There were a moderate and significant correlations between AIDS health literacy with family social capital (r = 0.178; p = 0.001) and AIDS risk perception (r = 0.317; p = 0.009). Also, regression analysis showed that 12.1% of variations in AIDS risk perception were explained by several variables of the study. Conclusions: Considering the relationship between AIDS health literacy and social capital with AIDS risk perception, it can be concluded that the increased power of visual and written analysis and understanding of adolescents, along with cohesion, respect, trust, and mutual understanding in the family, can be a protective factor against HIV disease. HIV AIDS Rev 2021; 20, 1: 52-58 DOI: https://doi.org/10.5114/hivar.2021.105112