HIV/AIDS Related Knowledge and Risk Behaviors Among Unmarried Out-of-school Youths in Sichuan

Objective To understand HIV/AIDS related knowledge among unmarried out-of-school youths in Sichuan province.Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted with convenience sampling by fixed sample size.Self-designed structured questionnaire was adopted by face-to-face investigation.Results Of all the 1 180out-of-school youths,the overall awareness rate of HIV/AIDS related knowledge was 69.3%.The awareness rates varied with age,ethnic,and educational level(successively:χ2=28.81,P 0.01;χ2=53.28,P 0.01andχ2=50.82,P 0.01).Outof-school youth with characteristics of less than 20years,minorities or with educational level lower than junior high school tended to have a lower awareness rate.The main sources of acquire AIDS/HIV knowledge were television(81.9%),newspapers or books(43.6%)and the internet(63.1%).They expected to obtain knowledge of HIV/AIDS in three main ways,namely TV(72.4%),internet(53.3%)and publicity materials(29.4%).Conclusion Out-of-school youths are basically aware of certain HIV/AIDS-related knowledge,yet the awareness rates vary in different subgroups.It is necessary to provide tailored health education and behavior intervention to reduce their vulnerabilities for HIV infection.