Assessment of awareness about HIV/AIDS in slum areas of Jodhpur city

Background: Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection, the disease, whose mode of transmission is known and is largely preventable, but due to lack of knowledge and practices in general population causes its continuous spread. Aim and objectives: To assess the awareness level about HIV/AIDS among male and female of 15-44 years age group residing in slum areas. Materials and methods: A cross sectional study was conducted at slum areas of Jodhpur city to assess the awareness and knowledge about HIV/AIDS among male and female of 15-44 years age group. Total 741 persons were selected by multi stage sampling method in 254 households from 66 slums and a predesigned and pretested questionnaire was used to record the information. The data was entered into Microsoft Excel spreadsheet and analyzed using “Chi square test” of significance. Results: Only 20.1% were aware about the word “HIV” and only 8.7% of these knew the meaning of HIV while 68.8% subjects aware about word “AIDS” and only 12% of them knew the meaning of the word AIDS. Age, sex, religion, caste, literacy and socio-economic status were significantly influenced the knowledge gained (p<0.01). Unsafe sex (heterosexual) was most frequently (52.5%) known route of transmission by the respondents. Conclusion: In spite of having large scale information, education and communication activities, at the national and state level, the knowledge of various aspects of HIV/AIDS was deficient and myths about modes of transmission were prevalent in studied slum population.