J Korean Community Nurs.  2004 Jun;15(2):298-307.

A Study on Soldiers' Knowledge, Attitude and Health Belief about AIDS

• Moon ES
• Jung HS
• Choi ES

Abstract

PURPOSE
This study purposed to investigate the relationship between soldiers' general characteristic and their knowledge, attitude and health-belief about AIDS. METHOD: This study conducted a survey of 197 soldiers using a structured questionnaire. Data were collected from the 10th to 30th of May 2003. RESULT: The average age of the participants was 21.6 years, 78.2% of them were undergraduates of universities, and by religion the number of Christians was largest. In addition, 81.2% of them had lived with their parents and siblings before they joined the army and most of them were unmarried. Of the subjects, 75.1% finished education about AIDS, 64.5% experienced a sexual intercourse and 6.3% experienced a venereal disease. The participants' knowledge level about AIDS was 14.6 out of 20 points and their attitude about AIDS is 3.96 out of 5 points on the average. Their health-belief about AIDS was 4.0 out of 5 points in "perceived benefits," 2.9 in "perceived barriers," 2.6 in "perceived seriousness" and 2.6 in "perceived sensitivity. Among the subjects' general characteristics, religion was found to be a statistically significant variable for their knowledge level about AIDS. A variable that is statistically significant for the subjects' attitude toward AIDS was families they had lived together before joining the army. Statistically significant variables for the subjects' healthbelief about AIDS were perceived sensitivity and experience in venereal diseases, perceived benefits and AIDS education and perceived barriers and marital status. The subjects' knowledge about AIDS was in a statistically significant correlation with their attitude toward AIDS, and their attitude toward AIDS with perceived benefits.
CONCLUSION
According to the results of this study, those who had had AIDS education appeared to have high attitude and health-belief concerning AIDS. Thus it is necessary to execute AIDS education systematically and continuously in order to have right attitude and high health-belief concerning AIDS.

MeSH Terms

Coitus
Education
Humans
Marital Status
Military Personnel
Parents
Surveys and Questionnaires
Sexually Transmitted Diseases
Siblings
Single Person