Sisay Solomon, Erku Woldaregay, Medhin Girmay, Woldeyohannes Desalegn
Department of Public Health, School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Addis Ababa Science and Technology University, P,O, Box 16417, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
BMC Res Notes. 2014 Aug 12;7:518. doi: 10.1186/1756-0500-7-518.
Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) epidemic among youth is largely ignored and remains invisible to both young people themselves and to the society as a whole. Thus, the aim of the study was to assess the extent of perception risk of HIV and utilization of voluntary counseling and testing (VCT) service among high school students at Debre-berhan Town, Amhara Regional State, Ethiopia.
A cross-sectional study was carried out from November 2010 up to January 2011 among secondary school students at Debre-berhan Town. Perception risk and VCT use were considered as dependant variables. A stratified random sampling technique was used to recruit study participants by taking schools as strata. Semi-structured self-administered questionnaire was used to collect the necessary data. Data was entered and analyzed using SPSS version 17.0. P-value < 0.05 was considered as statistically significant.
A total of 339 students were consented to participate in the study and the response rate was 96.3%. The student ages' were ranged from 15 up to 24 years. Among the study participants, 30 (8.8%) had sexual contact and the mean age of first sexual encounter was 16.4 (SD =2.05) years. Of sexually active students, 12 (40%) had sex with different persons within the last 6 months, 13 (43.3%) had ever used condom and 15 (50%) had used VCT service. There was no statistically significant association between risk perception towards HIV infection and ever use of VCT service (AOR (95% CI) = 1.0(0.30, 4.02).
Some students were engaged in risky sexual behavior even though they had heard about HIV/AIDS. The perception of risk for acquisition of HIV infection and utilization of VCT were low. Thus, education on topic of HIV/AIDS through integrating as part of school curriculum and encouraging the existing health institutions to provide youth-friendly sexual counseling services including VCT for HIV are strongly recommended.
青少年中的人类免疫缺陷病毒（HIV）流行很大程度上被忽视，无论是年轻人自身还是整个社会都对此缺乏关注。因此，本研究的目的是评估埃塞俄比亚阿姆哈拉州德布雷伯汉镇高中生对HIV感染风险的认知程度以及自愿咨询检测（VCT）服务的利用情况。
2010年11月至2011年1月在德布雷伯汉镇的中学生中开展了一项横断面研究。将对HIV感染风险的认知和VCT服务的使用视为因变量。采用分层随机抽样技术，以学校为分层单位招募研究参与者。使用半结构化自填式问卷收集必要数据。数据录入并使用SPSS 17.0版进行分析。P值<0.05被认为具有统计学意义。
共有339名学生同意参与研究，应答率为96.3%。学生年龄在15至24岁之间。在研究参与者中，30人（8.8%）有过性接触，首次性接触的平均年龄为16.4岁（标准差=2.05）。在有性行为的学生中，12人（40%）在过去6个月内与不同的人发生过性行为，13人（43.3%）曾使用过避孕套，15人（50%）曾使用过VCT服务。对HIV感染的风险认知与曾使用VCT服务之间无统计学显著关联（调整后比值比（95%置信区间）=1.0（0.30，4.02））。
一些学生尽管听说过HIV/艾滋病，但仍从事危险的性行为。对感染HIV风险的认知以及VCT服务的利用率较低。因此，强烈建议将HIV/艾滋病相关教育纳入学校课程，并鼓励现有医疗机构提供对青少年友好的性咨询服务，包括HIV的VCT检测。
