Al Bahri Ruba, Al-Balushi Aaisha, Balkhair Abdullah
College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat, OMN.
Department of Medicine/Infectious Diseases Unit, Sultan Qaboos University Hospital, Muscat, OMN.
Cureus. 2024 Aug 16;16(8):e67006. doi: 10.7759/cureus.67006. eCollection 2024 Aug.
There is scarce literature from the region pertinent to university students' HIV-related knowledge, perception, attitudes, and behavior toward people living with HIV. Moreover, university students in Oman are remarkably uninformed about HIV, resulting in misconceptions and stigmatization among students.
This research aimed to examine HIV-related knowledge and attitudes of undergraduate medical and non-medical university students toward people living with HIV in Oman.
This was a qualitative cross-sectional study using convenience sampling to recruit participants from nine colleges at Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat, Oman. An online questionnaire composed of 17 Likert scale statements examining students' knowledge and nine Likert scale statements exploring students' attitudes was used. A knowledge score ≥ the mean was considered good knowledge, whereas a stigma score > the mean was regarded as stigmatization. A sample size of 376 students was computed using a Raosoft calculator (Raosoft, Inc., Seattle, Washington, United States) with a confidence level of 95% and a margin of error of 5%. Cronbach's alpha for the 26-item questionnaire was α = 0.716. Responses were collected and analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 26, (Released 2019; IBM Corp., Armonk, New York, United States). The questionnaire and the study protocol were approved by the institution's medical research and ethics committee.
A total of 678 undergraduate university students responded to the questionnaire including 450 (66.4%) and 228 (33.6%) female and male students, respectively. Medical students represented 20.8% of the responders. The mean knowledge score was 12.3 ± 1 signifying good knowledge in 72% of the students and the mean stigma score was 6.03 ± 3.51 indicating that 43.4% of the responders had a negative and stigmatizing attitude. Medical students had the highest mean knowledge score (14.2 ± 1.8) denoting good knowledge in 83.5% of the students. Additionally, medical students had the lowest mean stigma score (4.64 ± 3.32) implying that 29% of the surveyed medical students had negative attitudes toward people living with HIV. No significant association was found between students' academic performance or students' sex with mean knowledge scores. Contrarily, male sex was found to be significantly associated with lower mean stigma scores. No significant relationship between students' knowledge scores and stigma scores was observed.
The findings of this study denote a substantial gap in HIV-related knowledge among university students, leading to undesirable attitudes toward people living with HIV. These findings call for an urgent need to escalate HIV awareness and educational programs tailored to university students in Oman.
该地区关于大学生对艾滋病毒相关知识、认知、态度以及对艾滋病毒感染者行为的文献稀缺。此外，阿曼的大学生对艾滋病毒了解甚少，导致学生中存在误解和污名化现象。
本研究旨在调查阿曼本科医学生和非医学生对艾滋病毒感染者的相关知识和态度。
这是一项定性横断面研究，采用便利抽样从阿曼马斯喀特苏丹卡布斯大学的九所学院招募参与者。使用一份由17条李克特量表陈述组成的在线问卷来调查学生的知识，以及9条李克特量表陈述来探究学生的态度。知识得分≥平均值被认为具有良好的知识水平，而污名得分>平均值则被视为存在污名化。使用Raosoft计算器（美国华盛顿州西雅图市的Raosoft公司）计算出样本量为376名学生，置信水平为95%，误差幅度为5%。26项问卷的克朗巴哈系数α = 0.716。使用IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows版本26（于2019年发布；美国纽约州阿蒙克市的IBM公司）收集和分析回复。问卷和研究方案得到了该机构医学研究和伦理委员会的批准。
共有678名本科大学生回复了问卷，其中女生450名（66.4%），男生228名（33.6%）。医学生占回复者的20.8%。知识得分的平均值为12.3 ± 1，表明72%的学生具有良好的知识水平；污名得分的平均值为6.03 ± 3.51，表明43.4%的回复者持有负面和污名化态度。医学生的知识得分平均值最高（14.2 ± 1.8），表明83.5%的学生具有良好的知识水平。此外，医学生的污名得分平均值最低（4.64 ± 3.32），这意味着29%的受访医学生对艾滋病毒感染者持有负面态度。未发现学生的学业成绩或性别与知识得分平均值之间存在显著关联。相反，发现男性性别与较低的污名得分平均值显著相关。未观察到学生的知识得分与污名得分之间存在显著关系。
本研究结果表明大学生在艾滋病毒相关知识方面存在很大差距，导致对艾滋病毒感染者产生不良态度。这些结果呼吁迫切需要加强针对阿曼大学生的艾滋病毒意识和教育项目。
