AIDS And STD Education Essays - Sexual Health, Prevention Of HIVAIDS

AIDS and STD Education Adults (over the age of 18) from the _________ company and other peope who I know were randomly assigned to receive the survey. The group includes married males and females as well as single male and females. There are 19 female and 31 male subjects. A survey consisting of twenty statements concerning sexually transmitted disease and HIV infection. The survey was designed by myself . The purpose of the survey is to measure participants awareness of AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases. I am trying to show that people are not well informed about subjects such as condom use, condom use and alcohol, transmission of sexual diseases, and the magnitude of the AIDS problem. Subjects are asked to choose the level with which they agree or disagree with each statement. There are two levels of agreement and two levels of disagreement. See appendix A. A consent form was signed by all participants. See appendix B. Results t-test*: t (48) = -2.2185, p * .0313 | | | df cv pv Variable N Mean Std Dev. Minimum Maximum Q1 50 1.420 0 .810 1.00 4.00 Q10 49 1.408 0.810 1.00 4.00 Q15 50 1.320 0 .621 1.00 4.00 Q3 48 3.396 0.869 1.00 4.00 Q9 50 3.240 0.822 1.00 4.00 Q6 50 3.220 0.834 1.00 4.00 Q16 50 3.100 0.621 1.00 4.00 Methods Subjects Adults (over the age of 18) from the company and other people who I know were randomly assigned to receive the survey. The group includes married males and females as well as single male and females. There are 19 female and 21 male subjects. Ages ranged from late teens to early fifties, with the majority being in their twenties. Independent variable Questions 6, 9, 13, and 16 on the survey. I would be comfortable eating lunch with someone with HIV or AIDS. I would be comfortable shaking hands with someone who has AIDS. I am very well informed about HIV, AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases. I would not have unprotected sex with someone unless they got tested first. Dependent Variable. Awareness and education of AIDS and sexually transmitted disease. Operational Definition Awareness and education of AIDS and sexually transmitted disease equals a total score of 12 or higher on questions 6, 9, 13, and 16 of the survey. Procedures A survey consisting of twenty statements concerning sexually transmitted disease and AIDS was given to fifty subjects. A t test was performed on the results as well as a comparison of male vs. Female scores on the Awareness and Education variable. Discussion Results of the survey have shown a need for additional education of males concerning AIDS awareness and education. Females, (89%) did very well on the variable which was measured for satisfactory knowledge and awareness of AIDS and sexually transmitted disease. Males, (65%) did also score well on this variable. This leaves us with 35% of the males needing more education and 11% of the females needing to increase there awareness and education. The rather large number of males needing further education tend to support my hypotheses that yes more education is necessary. I was pleased to see that on the whole, people are better informed than I had originally hypothesized as demonstrated by the scores reported for specific question. The lowest score or strongest disagreement was on the statement that AIDS was no longer a big issue. People also realize that just having one sex partner at a time is not enough to protect you from AIDS as demonstrated by their response to number 10. The strongest agreement with statements on the survey concerned worrying about children's future. This being the case, why is it that behavior as is described in my research does not reflect this knowledge? People know what they need to do to reduce their chances of exposure to AIDS and sexually transmitted disease but they fail to do it. The research concentrated on students who are exposed to much more information about AIDS than adults who are out of the educational system. Further education about the dangers of unprotected sex is needed as the study suggest, but we also need to understand why education is not enough. We desperately need to develop behaviors which will protect us from sexually transmitted disease and AIDS. Education Needed for AIDS, HIV and Sexually Transmitted Diseases Sexually transmitted diseases are a major health concern for our country. With the spread of AIDS among so many people, both gay and heterosexual, it is important that we understand how these diseases spread and what we can do to prevent them. Continuing efforts to educate college students about the dangers of unprotected sex have resulted in little evidence of positive change in sexual behavior (Saywer & Moss, 93). During the 1980s, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection,