AIDS communication: role of knowledge factors on perceptions of risk.

The AIDS epidemic is a challenge for health practitioners, educators, mass media communicators, and social workers. The current absence of pharmacological, immunological, and medical interventions against HIV/AIDS demands that social and behavioral HIV/AIDS prevention interventions be given central focus. Efforts to reduce the practice of high-risk HIV behaviors are key to preventing or reducing HIV infection. However, effecting such changes poses many challenges since it must be addressed in the situational, social, cultural, and individual psychological contexts of different societies. While sexual abstinence is the most effective way to prevent the sexual transmission of HIV/AIDS, it is unrealistic to expect that most adults and adolescents will abstain from sex to avoid HIV infection. Rather, studies are needed to identify which factors influence the change of risk behaviors. Findings are presented from a study conducted to identify which factors contribute to the self-perception of risk for contracting HIV among 323 university students in a US midwestern city. At least 2 knowledge factors and the practice of safe sex behaviors were found to contribute to perceptions of lower risk of being infected with HIV. Media campaigns which deliver only accurate and comprehensive AIDS information from a medical and immunological perspective, and fail to address the subjective images people have about AIDS, may be less effective in reducing perceptions of risk than are message and educational strategies which also deal with people's subjective concerns.