Impact of AIDS health education sessions in the work environment

The prevailing level of knowledge about AIDS influences the incidence of HIV infection. Findings are reported from a study involving 258 employees of Tunisia s National Transportation Organization and 52 students of the faculty of Sciences in Monastir. 84% of subjects studied were male and 37% were 20-40 years old. 11.2% of the study subjects had ever contracted a sexually transmitted disease. They had unprotected sex in 71.5% of cases compared to 52.2% of the time among the general population. A questionnaire was given to the study participants before and after an educational presentation on health and an evaluation was undertaken 1 year later of 52 employees. AIDS was found to be heavily mediated. The levels of knowledge about the disease were high in both groups and those levels remained unchanged after the educational intervention in both groups. 43.1% of the students and 23.2% of the employees correctly identified at-risk populations; these percentages remained unchanged by the intervention. Both groups were significantly more aware of how to protect themselves against HIV/AIDS following the intervention especially the employees. While before the intervention 6% of students and 5% of employees correctly identified populations in which HIV serology should be conducted 11.6% of the employees could correctly do so following the educational session. Such health interventions should be implemented among other Tunisian business groups.