Knowledge and Attitudes towards HIV/AIDS: Testing among Students. Comparative Study between Ghana and Russia

<p>Despite enormous efforts by governments and organizations to help curb the spread of HIV/AIDS through trusted methods such as HIV testing, the disease still remains a serious menace among vulnerable group especially the young people across the world. This study used mixed method to examine young people&rsquo;s knowledge and attitudes towards HIV testing between Russia and Ghana. Questionnaire-based data collection through purposive sampling method of 200 respondents who are within the ages of 13 to 20 was employed for both countries. The study also relied on qualitative data from two focus group discussions from each country. The study showed that the most important source of information on HIV/AIDS for respondents from both countries was the school. Respondents from both countries had a moderate knowledge on HIV and HIV testing but there were some inadequacies in terms of their knowledge. There also existed some misconceptions on the modes of HIV transmission among few respondents from both countries. In addition, the binary logistics regression shows that attitude with HIV testing centers (OR=2.479, p&lt;.05) and sex partner (OR=3.993, p&lt;.05) influence respondent&rsquo;s willingness for HIV test in Ghana. On the contrary, it was found that attitudes with HIV testing centers (OR=5.081, p&lt;.1), education at the high school (OR=15.884, p&lt;.05) and college level (OR=19.843, p&lt;.05) and also, experience in HIV test (OR= 3.142, p&lt;.1) influence the willingness for HIV test among Russian respondent&rsquo;s. The findings call for increased educational programs geared towards educating young people on issues related to HIV/AIDS to help enhance their knowledge on HIV/ADS related issues and also engage in regular HIV testing.</p>