Objective:To promote the use of preventive measures and raise awareness regardingHIV/AIDS in India.Methods:Data from the population-basedNFHS-3 survey2005-06 was used. In this study, information collected on87 961women aged15-49years and44 717 men aged15-54years was used in the final analysis. The data collected was stratified by gender and place of residence. Analyses of the variables related to the outcomes i.e. knowledge, attitude, belief and practices, was conducted usingChi-square test to calculate significant differences among proportions of categorical variables.Results: We found that knowledge of HIV transmission and prevention was low among women and rural residents. Most of the respondents had a non-discriminatory attitude towardsHIV positives and majority agreed that children should be educated onHIV/AIDS. The use of condoms and proportion of respondents who had undergoneHIV testing was found to be significantly low. We found a significant gap in the beliefs regarding ways to avoid HIV.Conclusions: There are significant gender and urban-rural differentials in India in terms of knowledge, attitude, beliefs and practices inHIV/AIDS. Information dissemination in India should be designed in a way that not only raises the level of awareness but also result in behavioral change.
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