Rajkumari S, Murali Balasubramaniam A, Gauri Chandran S, Goutham Ranjith Nambiar and Harinandhini K
Background: Acquired Immuno Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) awareness is comparatively low in densely populated countries like India. India stands as the third largest country with HIV positive patients, with Tamil Nadu in the 6th position state wise. In this study a survey was conducted to assess the knowledge, attitude and risk related to AIDS among the undergraduate dental students in Chennai city, intended to create awareness among the youth thereby preventing the incidence of AIDS. Method: A dichotomous self-administered questionnaire consisting of 16 questions was approved by Institutional Human Ethical Committee and it was distributed to 432 dental students in Chennai, the filled forms were later evaluated. Result: This study reveals that the overall knowledge on AIDS among the study population was satisfactory. The knowledge on basics of AIDS is 84.12%, cause of AIDS is 88.3%, source of information about AIDS is 66.62% and knowledge on people at risk of developing AIDS is 79.72%, while knowledge on prevention and management of AIDS is 88.12%. Conclusion: This study infers that overall knowledge about AIDS is better among the boys than the girls. Health education must be made mandatory at schools, colleges, community level to defend from the globally endangering disease.
