Parental attitudes toward physicians providing AIDS education to children

This study was designed to determine whether parents would like their children to receive AIDS education from a family physician. Two hundred parents with children between the ages of five and 18 years completed a researcher-developed instrument assessing their opinions on AIDS education for their children. Seventy-six percent of the parents expressed a desire for their children to receive AIDS education from a physician. Topics requested by the parents included avoiding IV-drug abuse, safe sex, and sexual abstinence. The mean age at which the parents felt education should begin was 10.6 years (mode = 9.0 years). Based on the results of this study, physicians may wish to begin introducing AIDS education in routine patient visits with adolescents and pre-adolescents (ages 9-12), thus contributing to primary prevention.