ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: This study was conducted to compare HIV/AIDS knowledge and attitudes of hearing-impaired and non-hearing-impaired secondary school students in Ibadan, South-Western Nigeria. METHOD: A cross-sectional survey of all the hearing impaired students and an equal number of non-hearing-impaired students enrolled in a half way school in Ibadan was conducted. Four non-hearing-impaired students did not complete the survey and their responses were excluded from the final analysis. Data was analysed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (version 11.0). RESULTS: Seventy-eight hearing-impaired and non 74 non-hearing impaired students completed the survey. Thirty (38.5%) hearing-impaired and 67 (90.5%) and non-hearing-impaired students knew that HIV could be transmitted via semen, vaginal fluid and blood, (p < 0.001). HIV/AIDS knowledge scores were calculated giving minimum and maximum scores of 0 and 15 respectively. Mean knowledge score for hearing-impaired students was 4.7(±2.1) compared with 8.7(±2.3) among non-hearing-impaired students (t-test=11.307, p < 0.001). Generally, the students' attitudes to HIV/AIDS prevention and PLWHA were not favorable with only hearing-impaired and 44 (59.5%) non-hearing-impaired students agreeing that it would be alright for them to be in the same class with someone who had AIDS. CONCLUSIONS: The study showed that the hearing-impaired students had poorer knowledge and attitudes to HIV/AIDS compared with their non-hearing-impaired counterparts. There is a pressing need for development of HIV/AIDS education programmes specially designed to meet the needs of hearing impaired students.
Subject(s)
HIV Infections/prevention & control , Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice , Hearing Disorders , Students/statistics & numerical data , Adolescent , Cross-Sectional Studies , Female , Humans , Male , Nigeria , Schools , Students/psychology , Surveys and Questionnaires , Young AdultABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Adolescents and young people with disabilities generally face various forms of discrimination. Inspite of this, they have to deal with similar reproductive health issues encountered by their abled peers. This situation is made worse by misconceptions that they are not sexually active. OBJECTIVE: The objective was to compare the sexual practices of the hearing impaired students with their non-hearing impaired counterparts. METHOD: A cross-sectional survey was conducted. All consenting deaf students and an equal number of hearing students attending a half way school in Ibadan participated. Four of the hearing students did not complete the survey and their responses were excluded from the final analysis. RESULTS: A total of 78 deaf students and 74 hearing students with mean ages of 17.1 (S.D. ± 3.0) and 15.8 (S.D. ± 1.9) years respectively participated. Twenty-six (33.3%) deaf and 36 (48.6%) hearing students had ever had sexual intercourse (p = 0.055). Median ages at sexual debut were 16 and 14 years for the deaf and hearing students respectively. The number of sexual partners ever had ranged from 1 to 8 among the deaf and 1 to 6 among the hearing students. Four (15.4%) deaf and 23 (63.9%) hearing students reported that they used a condom the last time they had sexual intercourse. CONCLUSION: The study revealed that hearing-impaired students like their hearing counterparts were sexually active however deaf students were more likely to engage in unsafe sex. There is therefore a pressing need for comprehensive sexuality education for deaf students in the study area.