Conhecimentos, atitudes e práticas dos adolescentes acerca do HIV/aids e outras IST: um estudo no interior do Nordeste brasileiro

Abstract

In adolescence, basic patterns of behavior are established that reverberate throughout life and, among these, there is sexuality. In this moment of great biopsychosocial transformations, sexual initiation usually occurs, often without the prior guidance of an adult and surrounded by many doubts and curiosities. Thus, it is imperative to know the knowledge and practices of school adolescents about HIV / AIDS and other STIs, in order to subsidize public health policies that work with the sexual health of this population. Thus, the objective of this work is to evaluate the knowledge and practices of school adolescents in relation to HIV / AIDS and other STIs in the Northeast of Brazil. For this, a transversal study of the type CAP survey (Knowledge, Attitude and Practice) was carried out, which included twelve public schools in seven cities in the North of Rio Grande do Sul, totaling 623 individuals. Two electronic questionnaires were used, one about socioeconomic / demographic data, and the other entitled “Questionnaire for the evaluation of STD / AIDS prevention programs”, used by the Ministry of Health. The reliability of the items was verified through the Alpha Cronbach, where the mean of each value ranged from 0.198 to 0.379. Factor analysis was also performed to analyze the structure of the correlations between the variables. The study found that the 10 remaining items presented the requirements required for the development of AFE, presenting the value of 0.639 for the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin statistic. Bartlett's sphericity test showed significance (Chi2: 762,479; GL: 45; p <0.001). The accumulated total variance was 0.763. The domains resulting from the factor analysis were: Lifestyle / habits, preventive attitudes, endogenous forms of transmission and exogenous forms of transmission. Regarding the level of general knowledge about HIV / AIDS, it was observed that female participants (6.16), with a partner (6.24), attending the 3rd year of high school (6.19), whites ( 6.20), not adepts (6.15) and not attending religious ceremonies (6.20), living alone (7.49), with unmarried parents (6.17) and children of parents with complete higher education ( 6.26 / 6.34) had higher average scores. Half of the adolescents said they had already had their first sexual intercourse, however, only 31.3% reported having used a condom in the last six months. Although they have a considerable level of knowledge about HIV / AIDS prevention, the sexual practices of adolescents do not go against preventive measures, essentially regarding the use of condoms. Regarding the reliability of the questionnaire through the analyzes performed, the quality of the instrument was ensured. This study is of extreme social relevance, since it was possible to evaluate the knowledge, attitudes and practices of students, with a view to subsidizing the creation of policies and programs of sexual orientation in schools with attention to the integral health of adolescents, in order to to prevent them from getting involved in situations of exposure to the risks of HIV / AIDS and other STIs and to ensure the acquisition of safe and healthy sexual practices.