theresponseofcaribbeanyouthtohivaidsprevention.docVIP

The Response of Caribbean Youth To HIV/AIDS Prevention Messages Campaigns A Study Designed to Measure their Knowledge Of HIV/AIDS How They Are Acting On That Knowledge Conducted for UNICEF Office For Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean By Avant Garde Media November 2008 TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction 2 Literature Review 4 Health Belief Model 4 Aids Risk Reduction Model 7 Stages of Change 9 Theory of Reasoned Action 10 Social Learning Theory 12 Some Key Campaigns 14 Methodology 17 Report of Findings 23 Quantitative Data 23 Qualitative Data 39 Conclusion 65 Appendix 67 INTRODUCTION Around the world, 39.5 million people are living with HIV and the Caribbean is the second most affected region in the world after sub-Saharan Africa. AIDS is also the leading cause of death among 15-44 year olds in the region. These figures have led Caribbean leaders to tackle the epidemic head-on. Combating HIV/AIDS and other diseases is also one of the UN Millennium Development Goals to be reached by the year 2015. As a result large amounts of money have been and continue to be poured into programs that educate people on how they can protect themselves against HIV. The media has been at the forefront, creating documentaries, talk shows and advertising campaigns geared toward encouraging those at risk to alter their behaviour and adopt safer sexual practices. Some of the campaigns push the message to “condomize”, get tested and to abstain. However, while education is vital, no education campaign is useful unless it obtains the desired effect of altering the behaviour of the target audience. The aim of this study was not only to discover the effectiveness of HIV prevention messages but a vital part of it was to find out from the target audience how such campaigns could be more effective at reaching them and bringing about the required behaviour modification to lead to