Problems encountered assessing AIDS awareness among rural Mid-West high school students in a family practice setting

There has been growing interest in assessing AIDS awareness and knowledge of risk behavior among teenagers and how to measure the effectiveness of HIV education programs. A survey modeled after the CDC assisted study was distributed to three populations of high school students within a mid-western community to compare results with the CDC urban sites. Of 186 surveyed, the area results were comparable to urban sites and generally evidenced superior AIDS knowledge and lower incidence of high risk behavior. Ignorance and high risk behavior in rural areas warrants HIV education programs. The survey showed 58.6% of high school students regard their family physician as a primary source of AIDS information.