Community health staff's prejudice and knowledge about AIDS

Health service workers' attitudes to their patients carry significant health care consequences. In order to investigate the relationships between health workers' attitudes to groups at high risk of AIDS and their knowledge of the disease and views on procedures for care, community health care workers and students completed a social distance questionnaire concerning groups defined by ethnicity, sexual proclivity, or illness. There was strong negativity towards individuals of minority sexual proclivity and AIDS high risk groups. Fear of the disease and ignorance of its transmission and effective care procedures increase with prejudice towards these groups. Analysis of their relevant prior learning experiences demonstrates the need for an educational programme which addresses the identified sources of ignorance and which also necessarily concentrates on the prejudices which serve as a barrier to effective patient care.