Effect of instructional videotapes on AIDS knowledge and attitudes

The effectiveness of four commercial videotape presentations in changing AIDS knowledge and attitudes among 584 college students was evaluated in a pre-post design with control group and follow-up. AIDS knowledge and attitudes were measured prior to, immediately after, and 4 to 6 weeks following presentation of the informational videotapes. In addition, subjects rated each videotape on several specific dimensions, including overall quality. The effects of age, sex, prior exposure to AIDS information, and presence v absence of post-presentation discussion were measured as covariates. In general, there was a significant immediate increase in AIDS knowledge attributable to all four videotapes (p less than .001). These gains persisted until follow-up, with no erosion for three of the four tapes. With the exception of perceived effectiveness of AIDS prevention methods (p less than .001), attitudes toward AIDS showed no change as a result of exposure to any of the videotapes (p greater than .05). Viewer ratings showed two of the videotapes to be superior in terms of perceived overall quality (p less than .05). There were also differences in ratings of videos on other dimensions. Among the covariates, there was no relationship at time of follow-up between post-presentation discussion v no discussion and either knowledge gain or attitude change. Sex was related to one attitude component, with women perceiving the AIDS epidemic as more severe than men (p less than .001).