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Blog Summary
HIV-related illness has tripled over the last 20 years. AIDS is the primary cause of 85% of death in young adults living in developing countries. Adolescents between 10 and 19 years of age from selected government secondary schools were involved in a study by researchers Elebiju Oluwatoyin Juliana and Olanrewaju Motunrayo Florence. It gains valuable insight into the perception and understanding of this deadly illness among adolescents, sources where they learned and how parents and peers can make a positive impact and help prevent its spread.
HIV has become a growing problem in young adults across the world. The number of cases of HIV-related illnesses has tripled over the last 20 years.
An estimated 1.9 million people are living with HIV in Nigeria, accounting for a prevalence of 1.4%, according to a press release by UNAIDS. In 2017, 590,000 adolescents of 15–24 were infected with HIV, in which 250,000 were teenagers aged between 15 and 19, according to UNICEF.
AIDS is the primary cause of death, contributing to nearly 85% of young adults living in developing countries. The study attached to this article by researchers Elebiju Oluwatoyin Juliana and Olanrewaju Motunrayo Florence explores the effectiveness of peer and parent-led intervention to change the perception of in-school adolescents toward HIV prevention and more.
The study population was in-school adolescents in selected government secondary schools. The students were within the age range of 10 and 19 years old from the selected schools.
The study conducted with a quasi-experimental 22-itemed 66-point rating scale design gains valuable insight into the perception and understanding of this deadly illness among adolescents. The intervention’s effectiveness on the adolescents’ perception of HIV was measured by testing for mean differences among the groups.
The study utilized nearly two hundred and twenty students recruited from four senior secondary schools in four local government areas (LGAs) of Ogun State, Nigeria, to participate in the intervention.
The intervention’s effectiveness on the adolescents’ perception of HIV was measured by testing for mean differences among the groups. At the end of the intervention, the peer-led educational program had affected a statistically significant change in the means of the adolescents’ perception.
The study also revealed the sources of information from which the adolescents learned about AIDS and its deadly effects on humans. The perception of HIV was assessed with a scale that marked four other subscales: perceived susceptibility, perceived benefits, perceived severity, and perceived obstacles in line with the constructs produced from the Health Belief Models.
Overall, the study gains valuable insights into the effectiveness of how parent-led and peer intervention regarding HIV prevention can make a good impact on the community, helping reduce the numbers among young adults.
The study also records additional analysis of each intervention module’s influence revealed that the parent-led instructional program had a more significant effect on the HIV prevention skills of adolescents compared with traditional awareness programs. Overall, the research provides a unique insight into bringing better awareness among young adults and fighting this deadly disease.
