| Abstract: | To assess the level of understanding about AIDS among future health care professionals, we developed and administered a 31-item test covering five AIDS-related knowledge domains to selected undergraduate students, medical school applicants, medical students and pre-clinical nursing students. The percentage of correct answers ranged from 74% for questions about mechanisms of transmission to 59% for items related to testing and interpretation. Seventy-two percent of questions on clinical illness and disease were answered correctly. The number of questions answered correctly was a function of educational level. The students were generally knowledgeable about the risk factors related to sexual transmission, interpretation of the AIDS antibody test, and symptoms of AIDS. They were less informed about issues related to occupational acquisition of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and clinical details. Medical educators need to develop educational programs providing accurate and up-to-date knowledge about this disease. |
