Disease-Specific Knowledge Among HIV-Infected Adolescents: What Do They Know and How Do They Learn It?

Abstract

Disease knowledge is an important component of medication self-management. We examined HIV knowledge and understanding among 166 HIV-infected 13- to 21-year-olds (53% female, 72.9% African American, 59.6% perinatally infected). Behaviorally infected youth outperformed perinatally infected youth on HIV transmission knowledge and were more likely to report provider discussions about getting condoms and how drugs impair sexual decision making. While youth accurately answered most (78%) true/false questions, many could not define resistance (71.0%), viral load (59.0%), or CD4 (43.4%). Only 29.5% reported knowing either their CD4 count or viral load. Provider discussions about biomarkers likely contribute to greater HIV knowledge and understanding, especially for youth with lower CD4 counts, perhaps because illness triggers extended provider discussions.

KEYWORDS:

• HIV
• youth
• adolescents
• transmission
• knowledge

Notes

^a Lower numbers reflect missing data.

Notes. Values are mean (standard deviation). Mean differences were tested by ANOVA for nominal data and χ² tests for categorical data, with significant p values indicated as follows: *p <.05, **p <.01, ***p <.001. PIY: Perinatally infected youth who acquired HIV at birth. BIY: Behaviorally infected youth who acquired HIV through sex or drug behavior.

Model 1 is a bivariate regression model with HIV Knowledge Score as the dependent variable.

Model 2 is a multiple regression model including all variables associated at p <.10 in Model 1.

CI: confidence interval.

Model 1 is a bivariate regression model with Understanding HIV Biomarkers as the dependent variable.

Model 2 is a multiple regression model including all variables associated at p <.10 in Model 1.

CI: confidence interval.