Knowledge, attitude, beliefs and practices in HIV/AIDS in India: identifying the gender and rural–urban differences

To promote the use of preventive measures and raise awareness regarding HIV/AIDS in India. Data from the population-based NFHS-3 survey 2005-06 was used. In this study, information collected on 87 961 women aged 15-49 years and 44 717 men aged 15-54 years was used in the final analysis. The data collected was stratified by gender and place of residence. Analyses of the variables related to the outcomes i.e. knowledge, attitude, belief and practices, was conducted using Chi-square test to calculate significant differences among proportions of categorical variables. We found that knowledge of HIV transmission and prevention was low among women and rural residents. Most of the respondents had a non-discriminatory attitude towards HIV positives and majority agreed that children should be educated on HIV/AIDS. The use of condoms and proportion of respondents who had undergone HIV testing was found to be significantly low. We found a significant gap in the beliefs regarding ways to avoid HIV. There are significant gender and urban-rural differentials in India in terms of knowledge, attitude, beliefs and practices in HIV/AIDS. Information dissemination in India should be designed in a way that not only raises the level of awareness but also result in behavioral change.