AIDS-related knowledge, attitudes and behavior among adolescents in Zambia

AIDS-related knowledge, attitudes, self-efficacy, and behavior were examined among 3,360 adolescents aged 10-19 years old in Zambia, including in-school and out-of-school, rural and urban, and married and unmarried adolescents. The adolescents reported a moderate to high AIDS knowledge; positive attitudes towards prevention; and low to moderate self-efficacy about AIDS prevention. Although these factors were significantly related to adolescents' engagement in high-risk behavior, the results indicated that these variables add only 3% of explained variance beyond the socio-demographic variables, which explains 14% of the variance. Three groups were identified as at most risk for HIV: out-of-school adolescents, adolescents from rural areas, and married adolescents. Prevention programs that emphasize the use of condoms should be implemented for these groups and future studies should evaluate their effectiveness in reducing risk.