Knowledge, attitudes and perceptions about HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted infections in new dental and medical students in a venezuelan university

In the fight against sexually transmitted infections (STI)and the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)/AcquiredImmunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS), training andcapacitating since early stages of the professional careerrequire, among other things, to address the level of knowledges,attitudes and perceptions (KAP), that health sciences studentshave on it; taking on consideration not just medicine, butalso other areas such as dental studies. For theses reasons theobjective of this study was to assess the KAP level of a sampleundergraduate studies, at 1o year of both programs from aVenezuelan university (Universidad Central de Venezuela),in regard to STI and HIV/AIDS. From the total (n=120),63.3% were females; mean age was 18.64 years old. Regardthe proportion of correct or in-agreement answers, the rangeof them in the assessed population ranged between 60% and100.0%, being correctly or in-agreement responded, in mean,at 82.6% of the questions (±8.46), being significantly higherin medical students (84.92%±7.78%) than in dental ones(80.29%±8.54%) (t=3.101; p=0.002). In general terms, it wasobserved that those evaluated students, in both programs,from the main Venezuelan university presented a good level ofbasic knowledge as well appropriate attitudes and perceptionsabout STI and HIV/AIDS. It is important to consider theseresults in future studies and particularly for interventions inorder to have a correct attitude and perception on STI andHIV/AIDS from them.