Faculty of Medicine, The Ottawa Hospital, The University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada.
AIDS Behav. 2013 Jul;17(6):2045-52. doi: 10.1007/s10461-013-0448-6.
The Africaid Trust is a grassroots South African non-profit organization that engages youth in HIV prevention by harnessing the popularity of football (i.e. soccer). WhizzKids United, the organization's primary program, operates a 12-week program in elementary schools in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, which aims to impart knowledge and life skills critical to HIV prevention. The goal of this research was to compare elementary school youth who received the program to youth who only received traditional classroom-based HIV education on health behaviors and HIV-related knowledge and stigma. A secondary objective was to evaluate HIV knowledge, sexual behaviors, attitudes towards HIV and health care seeking behaviors among South African youth in grades 9-12. Elementary students who participated in the program reported greater HIV knowledge and lower HIV stigma (p < .001) than those who had not. The majority of youth in grades 9-12 report having sexual relations (55.6%), despite low levels of HIV testing (29.9%) in this high HIV prevalence region of South Africa. The results highlight the importance of supporting community-based HIV educational initiatives that engage high-risk youth in HIV prevention and the need for youth-friendly health services.
非洲援助信托基金是一个南非基层非营利组织，通过利用足球（即英式足球）的普及度，让年轻人参与到艾滋病毒预防中来。该组织的主要项目 WhizzKids United 在南非彼得马里茨堡的小学开展了一项为期 12 周的项目，旨在传授预防艾滋病毒的关键知识和生活技能。这项研究的目的是将接受该项目的小学生与仅接受传统课堂式艾滋病毒健康教育的小学生进行比较，了解他们在健康行为和艾滋病毒相关知识和污名方面的差异。次要目标是评估南非 9-12 年级青少年的艾滋病毒知识、性行为、对艾滋病毒的态度和寻求医疗保健的行为。参与该项目的小学生报告称，他们对艾滋病毒的了解更多，对艾滋病毒的污名化程度更低（p<.001）。尽管在南非这个艾滋病毒高发地区，艾滋病毒检测率较低（29.9%），但大多数 9-12 年级的青少年报告有过性行为（55.6%）。研究结果强调了支持以社区为基础的艾滋病毒教育计划的重要性，这些计划使高风险青少年参与艾滋病毒预防，同时也需要为青少年提供友好的医疗服务。
