ATTITUDES TOWARDS HIV-ANTIBODY TESTING AND PEOPLE WITH AIDS AMONG UNIVERSITY STUDENTS IN INDIA, SOUTH AFRICA AND UNITED STATES

Context: Stigmatizing attitudes toward persons with AIDS (PWAs) may reduce people's willingness to have themselves tested for Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) - thereby increasing the risk of transmission. Aims: To examine attitudes towards (HIV) testing and determinants of attitudes towards PWAs. Settings and design: A cross-sectional. Material and Methods: 600 first-year university students from South India, South African and America filled in a self-administered questionnaire. Main outcome measures included an Attitudes towards HIV-Antibody Testing Scale and Readiness to engage in personal forms of contact with People With AIDS. Results indicate that the majority of American and South African students and only 10 percent of the Indian students had been sexually active in the past 12 months. Almost one fifth of the American and South African participants but only 10% of the Indian students admitted to having had an HIV test. American students had a much more positive attitudes toward HIV testing than South African and Indian students. Regression analysis for the Indian student sample identified blaming, irritation and negative attitudes toward homosexuals as independent predictors of readiness to engage in personal contact with PWAs, while the regression analyses for both South African and American students identified pity and irritation as independent predictors of contact readiness with PWAs. Positive HIV testing attitudes were positively associated with contact readiness with PWAs. Conclusion: The findings are important for the role of HIV testing and counselling in campus AIDS programmes. The findings reveal important factors related to HIV testing and suggest strategies for developing effective HIV/AIDS counselling programmes in universities