ABSTRACT

Background: Hospital staff is most vulnerable to infection like HIV/AIDS. Knowledge, Attitude and practices (KAP) are one of the corner stone’s in combating this disease. Thus evaluating their KAP will help us to develop appropriate preventive strategy for them.

Study Design: Cross sectional comparative.

Place and duration of study: Teaching Hospital Dera Ghazi khan from August 2019 to March 2020.

Methods: A total of 163 respondents participated in this study. The data was collected by pre-tested questionnaire, tabulated and analyzed using SPSS version 22. Chi-square test of significance applied to comparison groups with a P value of ≤0.05.

Results: Out of total 127 respondents who heard about HIV/AIDS only 32(25.19%) had High (≥75%) and 66(51.96%) had Moderate (51%-74%) level of Knowledge about this disease. According to 124/127(97.64%) the disease is transmissible and is caused by virus 66(51.96%), can be transmitted by sexual contact 114 (89.76%). From mother to child during delivery 96 (75.59%) through blood transfusions 111(87.40%). only 23(18.11%) stated that disease is not transmitted by contaminated water and utensils. Only 12(09.45%) had positive attitude towards HIV/AIDS patients in spite of good practices for self and any family members. Level of KAP of 127 respondents who heard about HIV/AIDS only 30(23.62%) had High (≥75%) and 68(53.54%) had Moderate (51%-74%) levels. Significant association found between age groups, marital status and level of KAP.

Conclusion: This study provided basic information HIV /AIDS knowledge attitude and Practices of non-medical staff’s showing various misconceptions and inadequate information regarding the disease. The results are suggestive that there is ultimate need for developing awareness programs and proper training for high risk non-medical staff working in hospital. To have successful HIV control programs, negative attitude of people towards HIV patients should be minimized by existing and proposed health education systems.

Keywords: Knowledge, attitude, practice, HIV/AIDS