A 4-year follow-up study on sexual orientation, sexual behavior and AIDS related knowledge of undergraduate students in a medical university / 中华疾病控制杂志

Objective To explore the characteristics of medical sexual orientation, sexual behavior and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome(AIDS) related knowledge changing with grade. Methods A group of 876 undergraduate students of 2015 in a medical university were selected to conduct an anonymous survey once a year and a total of four times using self-compiled questionnaires on AIDS-related knowledge, sexual orientation and behavior of college students. Descriptive epidemiological methods were adopted for statistical description. Results The distribution of sexual orientation among medical students with different survey batches was statistically significant ( 2=26.223, P=0.036). The proportion of openly gay people in the total number of homosexuals showed an increasing trend ( 2trend=4.150, P=0.042). Follow-up study of Chinese medicine students on AIDS related knowledge of the overall rate of increased ( 2trend=23.462, P<0.001). The incidence of general sexual behavior and male homosexual sex among medical students in the past six months showed an increasing trend with grade growth ( 2trend=4.450, P=0.035; 2trend=6.738，P=0.009). At the second and third follow-ups, the proportion of men who used condoms occasionally and never used condoms increased, and the difference was statistically significant ( 2=7.935, P=0.047). Conclusions Due to the weak awareness of medical sexual safety protection, the school should continue to strengthen the AIDS publicity and prevention education of medical students in all grades, and improve the school sexual health education mechanism.

AIDS-related knowledge, stigma and customary beliefs of South African construction workers.

Customary beliefs about the cause/s of AIDS are significantly related to whether or not individuals will undergo HIV testing. This study examined the cultural beliefs of construction workers in terms of their demographic and lifestyle behavioural characteristics, and their AIDS-related knowledge and stigma attitudes, to help inform improved work-based AIDS-education interventions by construction firms. A total of 512 workers drawn from 6 firms operating on 18 construction sites in the Western Cape province participated in the study. Thirty-seven per cent of participants either endorsed customary beliefs/explanations about the cause of AIDS, or were unsure. AIDS-related knowledge proved a significant differentiator of participants endorsing customary beliefs (aOR = 0.8, 95% CI, 0.6-1.0), or being unsure (aOR = 0.5, 95% CI, 0.4-0.6), compared to participants not endorsing such beliefs. Stigma (aOR = 1.3, 95% CI, 1.1-1.7) proved a significant differentiator of participants with more polarized beliefs, namely, those endorsing customary beliefs compared to those not endorsing such beliefs, but was not significant in differentiating these categories from that of being unsure. The challenges to testing behaviour from incorrect AIDS knowledge may be amplified by adherence to customary beliefs that discount scientific explanations about the cause of AIDS. Interventions are required to specifically address misinformation or incorrect knowledge about AIDS derived from traditional beliefs, and should explicitly target persons who either endorse such beliefs or are somewhat equivocal about them. The role of peer educators is highlighted. Traditional healers, given their credibility and status within many traditional cultures, may also have an important role to play in this regard.

Investigation on AIDS cognition and sexual behavior among patients with HIV/AIDS in shenzhen in 2016 / 中华实验和临床病毒学杂志

Objective@#To investigate the situations of AIDS related knowledge, sexual behavior with various partners among HIV positive patients in Shenzhen before highly active anti-retroviral therapy, and to provide evidences for health education intervention.@*Methods@#Questionnaire survey and information collection were carried out among HIV positive patients, under the informed consent, during the first physical examination before highly active anti-retroviral therapy.@*Results@#The overall awareness rate of AIDS knowledge was 91%, 94.46% and 80.95% respectively for homosexual and heterosexual populations, with significant difference between the two groups (χ2=21.254, P<0.001). In addition, there were significant differences in the factors related to education, income, route of infection, marital status, residence and other related factors (P<0.05). In HIV positive MSM, primary sexual behavior occurred mainly at the age of less than 30 (96.8%) and in university or earlier stage (58.3%), college students as the first sexual partner accounted for 44.9%, and once used Rush accounted for 42.7%. There were significant differences in the number of temporary sexual partners and condom use frequency between homosexual and heterosexual subjects (P<0.05).@*Conclusions@#Individuals infected with HIV via different routes are variant on AIDS cognition. Health education on AIDS related knowledge and sexual security before and after antiviral treatment can not only improve the awareness rate of HIV/AIDS infection, but also can reduce the risk of the spread of HIV/AIDS.

Association between HIV infection and female sex workers in middle aged and old men in a city in Hubei provine, 2014 / 中华流行病学杂志

Objective To understand the HIV infection status in middle aged and old men and the association between HIV infection and female sex workers in a city in Hubei province and provide evidence for the targeted prevention and control of HIV infection.Methods Ten communities/villages were selected through stratified cluster sampling from the suburban and rural areas of the city.A total of 634 men aged ≥50 years were surveyed by using self-designed questionnaire in December,2014.Results The awareness rate of HIV/AIDS related knowledge was 13.3％ (68/513).Among the men surveyed,63.2％ (371/587) thought they couldn't be infected with HIV,9.1％ (52/573) believed that extramarital sex is acceptable,and 32.4％ (189/583) considered that commercial sexual behavior is just as well.Among the surveyed men reporting sexual behavior in the past 6 months,6.6％ (15/228) had sex with regular sexual partners,in which 63.6％ (7/11) never used condoms,21.8％(128/586) reported that some friends had commercial sexual behaviors.Among 601 men receiving HIV testing,7 were HIV positive (1.2％).The HIV detection rates among the men living at 3 communities near red light district were 4.2％ (5/119),1.1％ (1/95) and 0.5％ (1/192) respectively;while no HIV infections were found in the men living at 2 towns far away from red light district.Seventy seven of 581 men surveyed (13.2％) reported to meet visiting female sex workers and they had higher HIV positive rate (5.2％,4/77) than those without such experiences (0.6％,3/504) (P=0.007).Conclusion The middle aged and old men in this city had low awareness of HIV/AIDs related knowledge,and high-risk sexual behaviors existed among them.HIV positive rate was relatively high in this population,and HIV infection might be associated with sex service.

Association between HIV infection and female sex workers in middle aged and old men in a city in Hubei provine, 2014 / 中华流行病学杂志

Objective To understand the HIV infection status in middle aged and old men and the association between HIV infection and female sex workers in a city in Hubei province and provide evidence for the targeted prevention and control of HIV infection.Methods Ten communities/villages were selected through stratified cluster sampling from the suburban and rural areas of the city.A total of 634 men aged ≥50 years were surveyed by using self-designed questionnaire in December,2014.Results The awareness rate of HIV/AIDS related knowledge was 13.3％ (68/513).Among the men surveyed,63.2％ (371/587) thought they couldn't be infected with HIV,9.1％ (52/573) believed that extramarital sex is acceptable,and 32.4％ (189/583) considered that commercial sexual behavior is just as well.Among the surveyed men reporting sexual behavior in the past 6 months,6.6％ (15/228) had sex with regular sexual partners,in which 63.6％ (7/11) never used condoms,21.8％(128/586) reported that some friends had commercial sexual behaviors.Among 601 men receiving HIV testing,7 were HIV positive (1.2％).The HIV detection rates among the men living at 3 communities near red light district were 4.2％ (5/119),1.1％ (1/95) and 0.5％ (1/192) respectively;while no HIV infections were found in the men living at 2 towns far away from red light district.Seventy seven of 581 men surveyed (13.2％) reported to meet visiting female sex workers and they had higher HIV positive rate (5.2％,4/77) than those without such experiences (0.6％,3/504) (P=0.007).Conclusion The middle aged and old men in this city had low awareness of HIV/AIDs related knowledge,and high-risk sexual behaviors existed among them.HIV positive rate was relatively high in this population,and HIV infection might be associated with sex service.

Gender characteristics and HIV/AIDS related knowledge awareness and behaviors of transgender women / 中华流行病学杂志

Objective To understand the gender characteristics,HIV/AIDS related knowledge awareness and behaviors of transgender women.Methods A questionnaire survey was conducted among the transgender women recruited through snowball sampling in Jinan in 2014,and descriptive epidemiologic analysis was conducted on the survey results.Results A total of 55 transgender women were surveyed,all of them were male physically and female psychologically.Serious gender conflict occurred in 27 subjects (49.1％),and very serious gender conflict occurred in 8 subjects (14.5％).Thirty subjects dressed up as a man in social life,accounting for 54.5％;25 subjects dressed up as a women in social life,accounting for 45.5％.The average awareness rate of HIV/AIDS related knowledge was 57.9％(22/38).The awareness of knowledge about AIDS associated behaviors,such as multi sex partner and anal sex,was poor.For the lovers or sexual partners,58.2％ of the subjects (32/55) would choose males and 50.9％ of the subjects (28/55) had chosen males,and for the sex partner at latest sex,63.6％(35/55) of the subjects had chosen males.Up to 56.3％ of the subjects had sex with casual sexual partners (net friends and partners of one-night stand) at latest sex behavior.Among the subjects surveyed,18(32.7％) never used condoms;29(52.7％) used condoms occasionally;4(7.3％) used condoms frequently and 4(7.3％) used condoms at each sex.Conclusions AIDS associated high risk behaviors were common among the transgender women,such as unprotected anal sex,multiple sexual partners,frequent sex and poor condom use.It is necessary to conduct the study of the HIV infection prevention in transgender women.