HIV prevalence and risk factors in university students.

OBJECTIVE

To estimate HIV prevalence and risks in university students.

DESIGN

Anonymous self-completion questionnaire and HIV survey with saliva samples.

SETTING

University students at matriculation.

PARTICIPANTS

All first and third year undergraduates and newly registering postgraduates at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES

HIV prevalence, sexual behaviour, condom use, drug use.

RESULTS

The questionnaire responses were used to classify the 4665 respondents into four groups, ordered by risk of HIV positivity, and a sample of 2041 was selected for testing. All of the top two risk groups were tested (217 and 758 tests, respectively) as well as a random sample of the others. Five positive HIV-antibody tests were detected, all from the highest risk group. This gives an estimated rate of 1.2 per 1000 (95% confidence interval, 0.4-2.9) for all respondents. Only one of the five HIV-positives had been tested for HIV. The factors associated with HIV positivity were residence in Africa, intravenous drug use and male homosexuality. Overall, 74% of respondents reported ever having had sexual intercourse and this rate was the same for men and women. Reported intravenous drug use was very low: 0.5% for men and 0.1% for women. Condom use was more common for partners of short acquaintance, but unrelated to the number of sexual partners in the last year.

CONCLUSIONS

There was no evidence of the spread of HIV infection beyond known high-risk groups in this population. This may be a result of relatively low levels of HIV risk-taking behaviour in the majority of respondents.