Knowledge of health students about prophylaxis pre and post exposure to HIV

Abstract

ABSTRACT Objective To evaluate students' knowledge of nursing and medical courses at a public university on prophylaxis before and after exposure to HIV/AIDS. Method cross-sectional study, carried out with nursing and medical students (n = 167). In order to explain the effect of variables on knowledge, the Multinomial Logistic Regression was used. Results Participants had a mean of 23.03 years, female (56.5%), unmarried (64.3%), and heterosexual (86.3%). The level of knowledge demonstrated was mostly medium (49.4%), and only 28.6% showed a high knowledge about the subject. The multivariate analysis showed that the course (p = 0.03) and age (p = 0.01) were associated with a higher level of knowledge. Conclusions Nursing and medical students possess knowledge considered as average about HIV preventive prophylaxis, thus it is up to the health education institutions to provide subsidies for a better training of students, treating the theme as a transversal subject in their training.

Keywords

• Knowledge
• Pre-exposure prophylaxis
• Post-exposure prophylaxis
• Students health occupations
• Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome