Association Between Hiv-aids Related Knowledge and Hiv-aids Related Behavior Among Urban Young Adult Men in Indonesia

Indonesia has one of the fastest growing HIV epidemics in Asia and the third country with highest HIV burden and new HIV infection trends after India and China. In 2014, an estimated 660,000 PLHIV lived in Indonesia (AIDS Data Hub, 2015). Eighteen percent of new HIV cases reported in 2011 represent the age group 15-24 years (UNICEF, 2012). Access to information and sexual and reproductive health services for young people is limited. The 2007 IYARHS, which includes young men and women age 15-24 from 33 provinces as respondents, revealed low levels of HIV knowledge among the general young population. Young men had slightly lower levels of knowledge than young women, 13.7% and 15.1%, respectively. Surveys of high school students in six cities during the period 2007-2009 showed the low rates of consistent condom use (below 20 percent), although more than half the respondents were able to identify condom as an HIV prevention tool. In 2011, 49% of the high school students who admitted to have had sex reported that they did not use condoms during their last sexual intercourse. This study is based on a cross- sectional study among 5,933 urban young adult participants of adolescent reproductive health component of the 2012 IDHS. Questions on HIV/AIDS related knowledge and attitudes were from the standard 2012 IDHS never married men‘s questionnaire. Descriptive statistics and bivariate analysis (chi-square) are employed. The result showed that only half of urban young adult men (57.5%) have comprehensive knowledge about HIV-AIDS. Thirteen percent of urban young adult men had engaged to sexual intercourse, while only one fourth of them use condom at first sex and one third of them use condom at last sex. The HIV and AIDS-related knowledge has associated with HIV and AIDS-related behavior among urban young adult men in Indonesia (p value < 0.05).