Samina Naeem, Wasim Bashir, Aijaz Ali, Javed F.
Assessment of knowledge and perception of risk factors regarding HIV/AIDS in Prison at district jail Sargodha.
Pak J Public Health Jan ;4(4):26-34.

Background: The main aim of the study was to improve the general health status of the jail prisoners. Specic objectives were to assess the knowledge of HIV/AIDS among prison inmates and to explore the perceptions of risk factors related to HIV /AIDS spread in prison inmates of district Jail Sargodha. Material & Methods: It was a Cross Sectional study conducted in district jail Sargodha from 1st October to 31st December 2013. The sample size estimated to carry out this study was n=180. Data was collected through Systematic sampling and for its entry and analysis SPSS 16.0 software was used. Results: In this study the upper and lower bound of age groups was between 18 to 78 years. Average age of participants included was 35 years. Both married (56.1%) and unmarried (41.7%) respondents were contained within the study. During data collection all illiterate (42.2%) and literate (57.8%) prisoners from both urban (80.2%) and rural (15.6%) area were considered resulting in a large number of illiterate respondents belonging from urban area. Study statistics indicated that the ratio of low income levels of respondents was very high, which was 66.7%, between 5,000 to 10,000 rupees per month and only 15.6% respondents had income level above 20,000 rupees. Awareness regarding sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) out of total respondents, 126 were aware while 112 had only heard about HIV/AIDS disease. Study explored that a big ratio of respondents had no knowledge about casual relation with HIV infected person. It was found that the overall knowledge of respondents was reasonable e.g. by sharing needles, sexual intercourse, blood transmission, pregnant mother transmit to her new born child, through breast feeding, homosexual, shaving instruments. This study showed that about 83% of literate and illiterate having no knowledge about difference in between HIV and AIDs. Conclusion: The prison inmates may have HIV/AIDs inside the Jail or import from outside. The health setup in Pakistani jails cannot be benecial for the health of prisoners if necessary codal formalities will not be fullled. Even though Supreme Court and High Court have recommended implementing the proper health procedure but still there is no proper mechanism to monitor the implementation of the recommendations. Keywords: HIV/AIDS, Knowledge, Perception, Risk factors, Jails (Pak J Public Health 2014; 4(4):18-26)

PakMediNet -Pakistan's largest Database of Pakistani Medical Journals - http://www.pakmedinet.com