HIV prevention through extended education encompassing students, parents, and teachers in Japan

We developed an extended HIV prevention program for students, parents, and school teachers, and then evaluated its effectiveness.

The participants were 490 students, aged 13-14 years, attending four public junior high schools in Saga Prefecture, Japan. They were divided into two groups: control and intervention. All the students received group education by health professionals. In the control group, students received only two group education sessions given by health professionals. In the intervention group, there were three intervention components: parent education, teacher education, and student individual counseling by health professionals. Before and 3 months after the intervention, participants underwent evaluation of their frequency of communication about AIDS with parents or teachers, their knowledge of HIV/AIDS, and attitudes to sexual intercourse, self-esteem, and high-risk behavior.

A total of 135 students (80 boys and 55 girls) from the intervention group and 236 students (115 boys and 121 girls) from the control group participated in the evaluation 3 months after intervention. Adolescents in the intervention group showed more positive changes than those in the control group from baseline to follow-up. Intervention had a significant impact on the frequency of communication about AIDS with teachers (p = 0.027) and HIV/AIDS knowledge among females (p = 0.023), and intervention also had a significant impact on refusal of sexual activity by males (p = 0.045).

These findings suggest that effective prevention of HIV might be achieved by an expanded education program for students and teachers such as that described, and individual counseling that takes into consideration the sexual differences of Japanese adolescents.