Knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, and practices about HIV/AIDS in Kuwait.

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1999. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

Knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, and practices about HIV/AIDS in Kuwait.

AIDS Educ Prev. 1999 Apr;11(2):163-73. Unique Identifier : AIDSLINE MED/99231114
al-Owaish R; Moussa MA; Anwar S; al-Shoumer H; Sharma P; Department of Community Health, Al Shamieh, Kuwait.

Abstract: This survey is aimed at assessing knowledge, attitudes, beliefs and practices in Kuwait regarding AIDS/HIV. Structured face-to-face interviews were conducted during the year 1995 on a sample of 2,219 subjects, aged 18 to 60, health professionals were excluded. The survey instrument included 26 questions on AIDS/HIV knowledge, 6 about attitudes and beliefs, and 6 about behavior and practice. The remaining 22 items dealt with sociodemographic characteristics, role of religion, source of information, and satisfaction about AIDS control programs. Two thirds of subjects had good knowledge about the main modes of HIV/AIDS transmission. Using a multiple regression model, the knowledge score was positively associated with level of education, age, years of hearing about AIDS, and socioeconomic status. The multiple logistic regression showed that subjects tend not to change their behavior related to AIDS if they were less than 40 years old, had low education, were females, single, had a lower socioeconomic status, had heard about AIDS for less than 3 years, and had a low level of knowledge about AIDS. More than half of the participants were satisfied with the government's action for AIDS prevention. The majority of subjects thought that religion was important in dealing with daily life problems. In conclusion, while most of the people in Kuwait were aware of the main modes of AIDS transmission, a gap existed about modes that did not transmit the disease. This was reflected in their attitudes and practice toward AIDS patients. The study calls for a greater role for medical professionals, mass media, and religion in AIDS prevention and control.

Keywords: JOURNAL ARTICLE Adult Cross-Sectional Studies Female Health Behavior/*ETHNOLOGY Health Education/STATISTICS & NUMER DATA Health Surveys Human HIV Infections/*PSYCHOLOGY *Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice Kuwait Male Middle Age Statistics
990930
A9991318

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