Study of the Knowledge, Attitudes and Behavioral Practices of Bangui University Students in the Field of HIV / AIDS, Central African Republic

Introduction: HIV infection mostly affects young people between the ages of 15 and 25. The purpose of this study was to study the knowledge of infection among students and their behavior towards the pandemic. Materials and methods: This was a cross-sectional study from October to December 2015 among students in the first four years of medicine and law at the University. The variables studied were socio-demographic and behavioral. Results: Of a total of 427 respondents, 366 (85.7%) agreed to answer our questionnaire; 75.1% of whom were boys. The average age of the respondents was 27 years old. Singles (81.1%) were followed by common-law unions (17.2). Students lived with parents (49.5%) and university housing (23.5%).Of 366 respondents, 11% had recognized a history of STIs. About 94.2% of the respondents cited at least the 4 modes of HIV transmission and 82% the 3 prevention methods with abstinence priority (37.2%). About 99.5% of subjects had heard about screening. More than 85.8% of the respondents had already done the screening at least once. About 29.8% of the respondents were for abstinence, 20.2% for fidelity and 11.7% for condom use. About 96.7% of respondents said they changed risk behaviors after knowing about HIV. Out of 356 students, 97.3% had unprotected sex at least once. The number of partners met was 0 to 5 (42.1%), 6 and more than 20 partners (4.1%). The weekly frequency of intercourse was greater than 2 (22%) and 62.3% had a number of current sexual partners ≤ 2. The mode of penetration was sex-sex (75%), sex-anus (18%) and 63.9% of students still used condoms.