Peer education vs. health provider education in knowledge and attitude about prevention and transmission of AIDS in high school students

ABSTRACT

To compare knowledge and attitude of high school students who have thought about prevention and transmission of AIDS by peer group and health provider. This is an experimental study carried out on 417 students from six urban schools in Kerman. Group-1[n=212] received peer education, and group 2 [n=205] experiences health education. Both groups were administered, survey at three times pre intervention and post intervention immediately after four and 6 weeks after the first post test. For both the groups eight sessions were organized about AIDS in 4 weeks. Every session lasted 30 minutes. Independent sample T test and repeated measure ANOVA were conducted to assess at baseline and after 4 and 6 weeks. Both groups had significant improvement in knowledge and attitude [p=0/000] and it was highly significant in peer education group [p=0/000]. Six weeks follow up after intervention showed that peer education was better than health provider education [p=0/000]. Education increases the knowledge and improves attitude of students about prevention and transmission of AIDS. Peer education is a more effective method than health provider for AIDS education in adolescent