HIV/AIDS에 관한 국내 약학대학 학생들의 지식, 태도와 위험인식 평가

An Assessment of HIV/AIDS Knowledge, Attitudes, and Risk Perceptions among Korean Pharmacy Students

With the advent of highly active anti-retroviral therapy (HAART), the perceptions of HIV therapy have changed from treating acute and terminal diseases to managing complex chronic diseases. Due to needs for specialists with pro-fessional knowledge on anti-retroviral therapies, pharmacists have been recognized as established and integral members in HIV multi-disciplinary care teams. Nevertheless, the roles of Korean pharmacists for HIV/AIDS therapy were highly lim-ited. According to the transition of ‘2+4’-year pharmacy school curricula in Korea, it is necessary for pharmacy students to possess improved knowledge about and proper attitudes toward HIV/AIDS as future pharmacists. However, there have been little studies regarding the assessment of HIV/AIDS knowledge, attitudes, and risk perceptions of pharmacy students in Korea. Thus, this study was to examine Korean pharmacy students’ knowledge levels, attitudes, and risk perceptions about HIV/AIDS and compare them according to pharmacy educational systems. The self-reported questionnaire was uti-lized to collect data. Total 238 students responded to the survey questionnaires. Most pharmacy students who participated in this study knew that the main transmission routes of HIV were unprotected sex, unscreened blood, occupational expo-sure, and intravenous drug use. However, they did not properly know post exposure prophylaxis for HIV. The pharmacy stu-dents under ‘2+4’-year curricula were more competent with treatment, care, counseling for HIV patients than those under 4-year curricula. Most pharmacy students thought that all healthcare students and professionals should receive mandatory HIV testings. The results from this study may contribute to developing new educational programs about HIV/AIDS. Addi-tionally, further studies regarding the changes of Korean pharmacy students' attitudes and risk perceptions will need to be performed after they participate in these kinds of the programs.