RESUMO
BACKGROUND: Schools being the ideal setting for carrying out Health Education activities, the aim of this study was that of pinpointing and quantifying the changes in attitudes and knowledge on the part of teenagers enrolled in school in Algemesí (Valencia) following an educational intervention regarding HIV infection. METHOD: Eleven schools at which a total of 2,599 teenagers (ages 12-19) were enrolled in eleven different years of study (Secondary Education, Secondary Ed. and School Leaving Certificate, College Preparation Course and Vocational Training) were invited to take part. The Aulasida intervention carried out during the 1996-1997 school year consisted of an informative lecture-panel discussion and student involvement activities in small groups using educational materials. The gauging instrument was a questionnaire. This questionnaire was designed in a before-and-after cross-sectional study. An analysis was made divided into age and educational level strata. The averages were compared with the Student "t" test and the percentages of change with ji square. RESULTS: A total of nine schools accepted taking part. 1575 students answered the "before" test (47.4% males and 52.1% females), the average age being 15.2 (1.96) years old. The average number of correct answers to the "before" test was 13.5 (2.8). The "after" test showed an overall increase of up to 14.7 (3.0) correct answers (p < 0.01). By educational levels, this increase was highly appreciable in the younger age group. The most common sources of information on HIV were: television (80.8%); Aulasida (76.8%), teachers (60.9%), pamphlets (58.4%) and films (53.7%9. CONCLUSIONS: Educational interventions are useful tools for increasing knowledge and improving attitudes regarding HIV infection. Secondary schools are the best environment for this purpose, it being necessary to carry out interventions among younger groups, as a greater impact is thus achieved.
