Journal of health research in community

Introduction and Purpose: AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) is one of the greatest social - health problems in many communities in the twenty-first century. This disease is spreading rapidly due to low awareness and failure to be dealt properly with. The aim of this study was to determine knowledge and attitudes about HIV/ AIDS among health volunteers of Eghlid health centers in 2015.
Methods: In this cross - sectional study, 240 health volunteers of Eghlid health centers were employed through census. The data were collected by questionnaires and analyzed by Independent t-test and one-way ANOVA, using SPSS 18.
Results: The results showed that the mean score of knowledge and attitude among health volunteers were 14.88±94.2 and 46.85±6.99 respectively. Hence, health volunteers were found to  acquire 74.4 % of the knowledge and 66.9 % of the attitude scores. Besides, 19.1%, 18.3%, and 30.6% of the health volunteers didn’t consider sexual contact, blood and blood products transfusions, and occupational contact such as injuries with contaminated needles as means of HIV transmission. Moreover, a significant relationship was found between the score of knowledge, age (P= 0.006), and degree (P ≤0.001).
Conclusion: Considering the relatively low level of knowledge about transmission of HIV/ AIDS on the part of health volunteers, it was suggested that suitable and efficient packages and training programs are necessary to train the volunteers as literacy brings up awareness.