Knowledge towards HIV/AIDS among Universities Students in Taiwan – An Application of Item Responses Theory

Abstract

The HIV/AIDS pandemic was one of the most important and crucial public health challenges facing governments and civil societies in the world. Adolescents were at the center of the pandemic in terms of transmission, impact, and potential for changing the attitudes and behaviors that underlie this disease. Therefore, AIDS prevention has become a priority all in the world. A structured questionnaire was designed. A total of 277 university students’ feedbacks were collected. There were 236 female students and 41 male students. There were 135 students already taken health course and 142 students not take health course. With result of the study, the knowledge of HIV/AIDS was no significant differences existed between male and female. Male students and females’ knowledge of HIV/AIDS was not different. The knowledge of HIV/AIDS was significant difference existed between the taking health courses or no. These students who already take health courses get higher score than these students who not take health courses in knowledge towards HIV/AIDS. It could find that health courses were helpful in university students’ knowledge towards HIV/AIDS.