Knowledge, attitude and practices of pupils at Chipata day secondary school towards voluntary counselling and testing for HIV in Chipata district.

Abstract

The study sought to determine the knowledge, attitude and practice of pupils at chipata day secondary school towards VCT for HIV. A descriptive -cross sectional study was used. A total of 50 respondents who were pupils were recruited in the study using convenient sampling method and a self administered questionnaire was used for data collection. A pilot study was conducted at Libala High School (in Lusaka) and the actual study was conducted in Chipata District during the months of August and September 2008. Fifty pupils were recruited using convenient sampling method. Data was collected from respondents using a self-administered questionnaire. Coding and editing of data was done after data collection. Data was analyzed manually, findings presented in tables, graphs and cross tabulations. The results of the study indicted that 62% of the respondents had high knowledge on VCT/HIV, while 38% had medium knowledge, 88% had positive attitude and 12% had negative attitude towards VCT/HIV. Despite such a picture the results still indicted that even though the respondents had high knowledge and positive attitude, 66% had poor practice while 34% had good practice of VCT/HIV. 70% of the respondents reported that lack of awareness about VCT contributed to low utilization of the services while 52% blamed it on stigma as the reason for not accessing the services The study findings revealed that most of the respondents were females 56%, majority of the respondents 42% were in the ages 16-18 years while 58% were the highest grade which is grade 12 and 26% congregated with Roman Catholic Church. How ever there was no relationship between level of education and knowledge towards VCT/HIV, nor religion with knowledge or attitude towards VCT/HIV.