S.F. Students More Aware on AIDS, Survey Finds

Almost all San Francisco high school students know AIDS is caught mainly from sex, but a high proportion do not know much about avoiding the fatal disease, a survey shows.

The students, however, know much more about AIDS than do students in the nation as a whole, largely because of local media attention to AIDS and information provided through the schools and other government outlets, the survey found.

The survey results were published in the December issue of the American Journal of Public Health by professor of medical psychology Lydia Temoshok, psychologist Ralph DiClemente and research associate James Zorn, all from the University of California, San Francisco.

It was conducted in early 1986 among 1,322 students, aged 14 though 18, in San Francisco high schools.

“We think our survey supports very much the surgeon general’s recent message that there should be education on AIDS for children in high school and even earlier,” Temoshok said.

“It is important because there are kids who are sexually active and who are trying all kinds of things but still don’t know how to avoid AIDS,” she said.

The survey showed that more than 92% knew that sexual intercourse is a mode of transmission of AIDS and more than 80% knew that it also can be contracted from sharing hypodermic needles.

But only 60% knew that using condoms during sex decreased the risk of contracting AIDS substantially. Just 66% knew that medical opinion is virtually unanimous that it is safe to share belongings with someone with AIDS.