[Attitude of elementary and middle school students and their parents toward children affected by HIV/AIDS and its determinants].

OBJECTIVE

To describe the attitude of elementary and middle school students and their parents toward children affected by HIV/AIDS and to analyze the determinants of such attitude.

METHODS

A cross-sectional study with the stratified cluster sampling method was conducted to interview elementary and middle school students and their parents, and questionnaires were distributed to collect information about the basic characteristics, HIV/AIDS knowledge and attitude toward children affected by HIV/AIDS. Student's t-test, ANOVA and multilevel model were used to analyze the data.

RESULTS

A total of 732 students and their parents finished the questionnaires. The students' and parents' awareness rates were 77.56% (95% CI: 63.08% - 92.05%)and 81.76% (95% CI: 72.33% - 91.20%), respectively. Questions with the lowest proportion of positive attitude included separating the children affected by HIV/AIDS and not studying with those children in the same class. Gender (b =-1.15, P =0.016) and knowledge (b =1.26, P <0.001) of students, as well as attitude (b =0.40, P <0.001) of parents were associated with the students' attitude, while parents' knowledge (b =0.93, P <0.001) was associated with parents' attitude.

CONCLUSION

Discrimination towards children affected by HIV/AIDS exists among students and their parents. HIV/AIDS knowledge education helps to improve the students' and parents' caring and supporting attitude toward children affected by HIV/AIDS.