Comparing the effect of two teaching methods about HIV/AIDS on the student's knowledge and attitude at Islamic Azad University of Lahijan in 2003

Teaching is a basic strategy in health promotion programs. Concerns on sextually transmitted diseases has dramatically grown in recent years. Teaching can be a proper strategy to prevent these diseases, because these diseases are often acquired through avoidable and changeable behavior. To compare the effect of two educational methods, lecture (using film and pamphlet) and poster, on student's knowledge and attitude about HIV/AIDS. This research was a quasi-experimental study. The sample consisted of 160 students, chosen using stratified – random sampling and divided into two equal groups of lecture and poster. A questionnaire including three sections with 54 questions (demographic information, knowledge and attitude) was completed by the subjects in two stages, before and after teaching. Independent and paired t-tests were used to analyze the data. The findings indicated a significant difference between the pretest and posttest of knowledge scores in both teaching methods (P<0.0001). The mean of knowledge scores in lecture group improved from 35.18 to 75.7 and in poster group from 35.8 to 48.51. A Significant difference was observed between pre and post-test of the means of attitude scores for lecture (p<0.0001) and poster (p<0.001). The mean of attitude scores improved from 17.38 to 27.78 in the lecture group and from 15.36 to 18.68 in the poster group. Comparing the two methods, the results showed a significant difference in knowledge and attitude level in two groups (P<0.0001). Lecture teaching had more effect on improving knowledge and attitude of the students about HIV/AIDS. As a result, the effective and codified educational programs are proved as basic strategies to improve knowledge and attitude of the young about HIV/AIDS in order to prevent this discase.