Effectiveness of a school-based AIDS education program among rural students in HIV high epidemic area of China.

PURPOSE: To evaluate the feasibility and effectiveness of a life-planning skills training program using participatory methods among rural senior high school students in Shangcai County, Henan Province, China.

METHODS: The study was a quasi-experimental study conducted in three Shangcai County senior high schools with comparable socioculture-economic and demographic characteristics (two interventions and one control). The intervention, a life-planning skills program that uses participatory training methods, combining information education with effective skills building, was provided to all first-grade students (14-18 years old; 87% of them are between 15 and 17 years old) in the intervention group from October 2003 to December 2003. In total, 717 students from the intervention group, and 457 from the control enrolled at baseline, and over 91% of these were followed up at posttest.

RESULTS: Group x time interaction effects in ordinal logistic regression analysis were found on HIV/AIDS-related knowledge (p < .0001), attitudes toward daily contact with HIV-positive persons (p < .0001), and subjects' protection self-efficacy (p < .0001), suggesting the intervention increased subjects' knowledge significantly, changed their attitudes positively, and improved their protection self-efficacy. The intervention also significantly improved subjects' communication with teachers and peers on HIV/AIDS issues (p < .0001). However, no significant change was observed on respondents' attitudes toward premarital sex or their communication with parents between the two surveys (p > .05).

CONCLUSIONS: Three months of short-term HIV/AIDS education through life-planning skills training was welcomed by students and positively influenced HIV/AIDS-related knowledge, attitudes, protection self-efficacy, and communication among senior high school students in a rural area with high HIV prevalence.