HIV&AIDS-Related Knowledge Among University Students: A Review

Abstract

HIV&AIDS continues to pose a public health and developmental threat across the world, ever since it was discovered in 1981. Inadequate knowledge is one of the major barriers to prevention of the spread of HIV&AIDS. More than half of all of new HIV infections occur in young people. The objective of this study was to analyse the levels of HIV related knowledge among university students globally, with a focus on the Sub-Saharan Region. Various electronic databases were searched to review related studies on the levels of HIV and AIDS knowledge among university students. The overall results of the published articles that met the selection criteria showed that there are notable variations in terms of the levels of HIV& AIDS knowledge among the students. The disparities in the levels of HIV&AIDS related knowledge could be attributed to the inconsistencies in the research tools, sample size, academic year of the respondents, geographical locations, social, cultural, ethnicity factors, just to mention a few.This review has revealed that for similar studies in the future, it is important to assess the level of knowledge by using differing approaches that have the potential to provide a greater depth and breadth of information rather than utilizing singular approaches in isolation such as use of quantitative approaches only.