Knowledge and attitudes towards HIV/AIDS of a population of primary health clinics attendees in Kuwait

This study is the first step towards establishing a knowledge base to help health educators towards their goal of combating the spread of HIV/AIDS in Kuwait. Six hundreds primary health care clinic attendees from 15 years of age and above in two governments of Kuwait completed the questionnaire during July 2006 - January 2007. Collected data included demographic characteristics, knowledge about HIV/AIDS and its modes of transmission, sources of information and attitudes towards the disease. Knowledge were scored and accordingly were categorized as good and poor. Simple description of collected data was followed by analysis of factors that may affect knowledge score. The findings indicated that the respondents had a fairly good to excellent knowledge about AIDS. The correct answers ranged from 35.5% to about 98.2%. Concerning the source of information, mass media was the main source of information among higher proportion of those with good knowledge score. Negative attitudes towards individuals who have contracted HIV were highly prevalent in the studied sample particularly regarding patients isolation and ending relationship with a friend infected with HIV/AIDS. However, positive attitudes were observed regarding testing for HIV/AIDS before marriage, informing others from HIV positive cases and teaching the disease to high school students. Multiple logistic regression analysis revealed that married and highly educated participants and those who got information from mass media were more liable to have good knowledge. Although participants have fairly good knowledge they have mainly negative attitudes towards AIDS and people with AIDS. Mass media were the main source of information. Such findings suggest that health educational programs should be encouraged and these might have the potential role to limit the emergence of HIV/AIDS epidemic in Kuwait

Perceived competence in cardiopulmonary resuscitation, knowledge and practice among qualified nurses in Kuwait

Early cardiopulmonary resuscitation [CPR] is critical element in,the prevention of sudden death. Sufficient knowledge of health personnel including nurses is highly critical. The aim of this study was to assess the theoretical knowledge, experience and attitude regarding CPR of qualified nurses in Kuwait. The study is a cross-sectional survey that was conducted during summer 2006 in the Capital Health Region of Kuwait, including all registered nurses working in 21 primary health care centers. A self-administered questionnaire was distributed to all registered nurses. It included personal characteristics, training and practice of resuscitation, perceived competence regarding practical skills. It also included multiple choice questions to assess nurses' knowledge about CPR. Nurses' knowledge was transformed into percentage score. Factors that could affect nurses' knowledge were studied. Out of 279 questionnaires, 165 were returned back with 59.1% response rate. The majority of them [86.1%] had attended CPR session as a part of the nursing school curriculum and 65.5% of the nurses had participated in a CPR learning session other than in curriculum. It was found that 26.7% of the nurses had never participated in real resuscitation attempt. Overall, the median knowledge score of the included registered nurses were 42.9% for CPR and 52.0% for ECG. Factors that affected nurses' knowledge score were years of experience, participation in resuscitation session other than in curriculum, attempting real resuscitation and self confidence of the nurses. Nurses' knowledge score was poor, and actual testing of skill might have produced results of an even lower level. Nurses in units should receive compulsory training and retraining in CPR skills with periodic retesting of knowledge and skills