HIV related knowledge/attitudes and perceptions about PLWHA by sociodemographic factors
| % Agreeing or disagreeing with the statements | Sex | Age | Education§ | Marital status | All | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Male | Female | 18–35 | 36–50 | ⩽F.5 | >F.5 | Single | Others | ||
| % | % | % | % | % | % | % | % | % | |
| *Of the respondents, about 75% did not have a religion and about 33% were living in public housing estates. †Agreed or strongly agreed with the statement. ‡Disagreed or strongly disagreed with the statement. §An education level of Form 5 (F.5) corresponds to 11 years of formal education. ¶p <0.05;**p <0.01; ††p <0.001 (χ2 test). | |||||||||
| All* | 47.4 | 52.6 | 54.8 | 45.2 | 68.3 | 31.7 | 40.0 | 60.0 | 100 |
| HIV related knowledge | |||||||||
| A person can contract HIV through dinning together with PLWHA (disagree)‡ | 85.9 | 87.3 | 91.4 | 80.8†† | 85.8 | 88.3 | 91.0 | 83.9** | 86.6 |
| A person can contract HIV through using a toilet seat that has just been used by PLWHA (disagree)‡ | 72.3 | 60.9** | 73.2 | 58.0†† | 62.8 | 73.8** | 76.4 | 59.8†† | 66.3 |
| PLWHA can transmit HIV to others through coughing (disagree)‡ | 68.9 | 64.7 | 72.3 | 59.6†† | 63.2 | 74.2** | 73.3 | 62.3** | 66.7 |
| A person can contract HIV through having mouth to mouth kissing with PLWHA (disagree)‡ | 30.8 | 30.8 | 38.5 | 21.4†† | 28.3 | 36.3¶ | 41.0 | 24.2†† | 30.8 |
| A person cannot contract HIV through just having brief bodily contact with PLWHA (agree)† | 82.2 | 82.1 | 85.3 | 78.3¶ | 80.8 | 85.2 | 85.1 | 80.3 | 82.2 |
| A person could appear healthy for a long time after being infected with HIV (agree)† | 66.3 | 60.2 | 63.5 | 62.4 | 60.1 | 69.5¶ | 64.3 | 62.3 | 63.1 |
| HIV could be transmitted from a person who looks healthy to others (agree)† | 72.6 | 71.5 | 74.6 | 68.7 | 65.9 | 85.2†† | 76.4 | 68.9¶ | 72.0 |
| HIV related attitudes | |||||||||
| The current AIDS situation in Hong Kong is serious (agree)† | 15.4 | 21.2¶ | 16.1 | 21.2 | 21.8 | 11.3†† | 14.6 | 21.1¶ | 18.4 |
| Perceived that AIDS is horrible (agree)† | 66.6 | 66.8 | 62.1 | 72.3** | 66.8 | 66.8 | 61.5 | 70.4** | 66.7 |
| Felt more fearful in contacting PLWHA, compared to contacting other chronic disease patients (eg, mentally ill) (agree)† | 24.8 | 28.2 | 20.0 | 34.9†† | 30.9 | 17.6†† | 18.6 | 31.9†† | 26.6 |
| Negative perceptions about PLWHA | |||||||||
| The majority of PLWHA are promiscuous (agree)† | 39.7 | 47.3¶ | 34.5 | 54.9†† | 51.4 | 27.0†† | 32.3 | 50.9†† | 43.7 |
| PLWHA are merely receiving the punishment they deserve (agree)† | 19.8 | 21.4 | 17.0 | 25.3** | 24.5 | 12.5†† | 15.2 | 24.4** | 20.7 |
| PLWHA should feel ashamed of themselves (agree)† | 11.7 | 13.2 | 7.7 | 18.4†† | 14.9 | 7.4** | 8.4 | 15.1** | 12.5 |
| PLWHA deserve sympathy (disagree)‡ | 12.3 | 15.3 | 11.6 | 16.8¶ | 15.2 | 10.9 | 9.6 | 16.8** | 13.9 |
| PLWHA would not make other colleagues apprehensive (disagree)‡ | 60.6 | 54.1 | 55.3 | 59.6 | 56.3 | 59.4 | 60.6 | 55.1 | 57.2 |