Lay volunteers' knowledge and beliefs about AIDS prevention

The imperative to inform the public about the risks of HIV-infection and AIDS, combined with an acute shortage of resources for doing so, has led to an unprecedented number of lay volunteers who are performing functions normally reserved for health professionals. In many communities, the general public may receive much of their information about HIV-transmission and AIDS prevention from lay volunteers who work for community-based AIDS awareness programs. Therefore, it would be of interest to know whether lay volunteers' own knowledge and beliefs about AIDS are accurate and consistent with promoting safer sex and if they are not so initially, whether they are readily amenable to change after training by health professionals. To investigate these issues, pre-/post-questionnaires were administered to lay persons in training to become volunteers for the NO/AIDS Task Force in New Orleans, Louisiana. Prior to training, lower knowledge volunteers differed from their higher knowledge peers on 2 of the 5 Health Belief Model (HBM) dimensions: perceived vulnerability (p .057) and barriers (p .002). After training, these differences disappeared, and all volunteers scored 100% on the knowledge section. Lay volunteers' opinions are also provided about where, in what format, and by whom adults and teenagers should be taught about AIDS.