African University Students’ Knowledge of HIV/AIDS and Mosquito Bites

Abstract

The first objective of African university students’ knowledge of HIV/AIDS, while the subsidiary objective sought to examine the extent to which African university students thought mosquito bites can lead to HIV/AIDS transmission. Descriptive statistics in the form of frequency, percentage and chi-square were used as method of data analysis. The sample comprised 366 participants drawn from three universities located in Kenya, South Africa and Tanzania. The results showed that the level of HIV/AIDS knowledge among the participants was overall high for most questions/statements. Responses to whether mosquito bites leads to HIV/AIDS transmission were statistically significant. Substantial participants thought that mosquito bites is related to HIV/AIDS transmission. Moreover, the magnitude of the misconceptions was cause for concern. It was concluded that such findings serve as reinforcement to the concerted effort for HIV/AIDS public education. Such effort ought to be kept in place, particularly for the fact that there are still some misconceptions about HIV/AIDS which call for timely intervention.

DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n20p1847