Young academic knowledge about aids and its prevention

Abstract

 Aids is a serious problem of Public Health, because each year rises the number of contaminated persons. In Brazil, heterosexual transmission became the main way of infection by HIV. Goal: to know, how adolescents, in the age-group of 17 to 24 years old that attend to the third degree school pattern, know about Aids and its prevention. This research was developed on a private university in the state of São Paulo, Brazil, interviewing students, from courses: journalism, fashion, tourism pedagogy. We applied 300 questionnaires with openned and closed questions in the period from february to april of 2006. Results: 95% of students has a knowledge of Aids and the way of its transmission. As for the use of preservatives, 66% said they use them and 26% do not use them and the alleged motive are: stable partner, marriage. As for to the difficulty to use preservatives 60% said they have no problems, but 50% reported difficulties to put them on, lost of sensibility, tightness, among others. Only 2% of students used the feminine preservatives. To 57% of the interviewed students, the word Aids remembers death, suffering and pain.

Key words: Health promotion; Prevention of transmissible diseases; Acquired immune deficiency syndrome; Preservative.