The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA

Abstract #67356

W. James Jacob, MA, Education, Graduate School of Education, University of California, Los Angeles, 203 GSEIS Building, Box 951521, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1521, 310-206-9216, wjacob@ucla.edu, Donald Morisky, ScD, Department of Community Health Sciences, School of Public Health, University of California, Los Angeles, 650 Charles E. Young Drive South, CHS 26-070, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1772, Yusuf K. Nsubuga, MA, Ministry of Education & Sports, UDC Building, Parliament Avenue, P.O. Box 7063, Kampala, Uganda, and Steven J. Hite, EdD, Department of Educational Leadership & Foundations, Brigham Young University, 301 MCKB, Provo, UT 84602.

This study on HIV/AIDS prevention will be conducted jointly by the Uganda Ministry of Education and Sports (MOES) and the University of California, Los Angeles in 75 secondary schools in Uganda. The purpose of the study is to provide the Ministry of Education and Sports with an assessment of the effectiveness of the national curriculum of education programs for the prevention and control or HIV/AIDS in secondary schools in Uganda. A qualitative/quantitative assessment procedure will be used consisting of key informant interviews, focus group sessions and individual assessments. Participants include school students, teachers and administrators. Constructs to be assessed include instructional content, knowledge regarding HIV prevention, attitudes towards HIV and PWA. The instrument was developed by the UN educational testing services. Heavily impacted by the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s and 1990s, Uganda has since become a leading nation in sub-Saharan Africa in reversing its overall infection rate. Results from this tri-level of assessment will provide relevant and specific recommendations for other African nations still experiencing high rates of new infections.

Learning Objectives:

• Describe the direction the Uganda Ministry of Education will pursue in building a national health curriculum that includes HIV/AIDS instruction.
• Specify the most effective HIV/AIDS prevention behaviors accepted by at the secondary school level.
• Specify important myths and traditional practices which remain as major obstacles in teaching effectively about HIV/AIDS in secondary schools.

Keywords: Adolescents, Students

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.