Towards AIDS prevention and education at the University of Malawi

It is important to develop community orientated approaches to health promotion. Malawi has one of the highest rates of AIDS/HIV infection and one of the lowest percentages of students in tertiary education, in the world. We surveyed the opinions of 175 undergraduate university students on developing prevention and education regarding HIV/AIDS. Descriptive statistics, analysis of variance and factor analysis revealed several important findings: there were no consequential differences between the responses of male and female students; information on self protection was rated as most important for AIDS/HIV education; the primary factor for AIDS/HIV prevention also related to protection, but this was in conjunction with a desire for "sex-perpetuation". These findings should contribute to the development of health promotion initiatives, directed at AIDS/HIV, which reflect the values and concerns of the university student community. Such an approach acknowledges the role of students as a major 'stakeholder' in the university community, rather than dissempowering them as simply the recipients of 'appropriate AIDS/HIV prevention/education'.