Background: In 2007, the Government of Bangladesh incorporated a chapter on HIV/AIDS into the national curriculum for an HIV-prevention program for school students. For the efficient dissemination of knowledge, an intervention was designed to train the teachers and equip them to educate on the topic of HIV/AIDS. The present study intended to understand the impact of this intervention by assessing the knowledge, attitudes and behaviours related to HIV/AIDS, among the targeted students.
Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted with the students at randomly selected schools from two adjacent districts. Considering exposure to intervention, one district was assigned for intervention and the other as a control. In total, 1,381 students, aged 13-18 years (or above) were interviewed, 675 from the control areas and 706 from the intervention areas. Univariate and bivariate analyses were performed on the collected data.
Results: A significantly higher proportion (p<0.001) of students in the intervention areas attended HIV/AIDS classes, demonstrated better knowledge and fewer misconceptions regarding the transmission and prevention of HIV. The same was derived regarding their attitude towards people living with HIV, as a higher proportion (p<0.001) responded positively, compared to the control groups of the study. Additionally, multinomial logistic regression analysis showed that students in intervention area were more likely to have good knowledge on HIV transmission (OR 2.71, 95% CI 1.74-4.22) and prevention (OR 2.15, 95% CI 1.41-3.26) compared to the students in the control areas.
Conclusions: The training programme needs to be scaled up, since it is likely to have an impact among students; we have witnessed that the interventions particularly helped increase HIV/AIDS knowledge among students and positively change the students' attitudes towards HIV/AIDS.