AEGiS-06IAC: Usefulness of an AIDS educational program for law enforcement professionals.

6th International AIDS Conference

San Francisco, California, USA — June 20-23, 1990

Usefulness of an AIDS educational program for law enforcement professionals.

Int Conf AIDS 1990 Jun 20-23; 6:346 (abstract no. Th.D.880)
King T, Blake S, Khardori N, Rabinovich S, VonBehren LA; Southern Illinois University School of Medicine (SIU), Springfield, IL, USA

OBJECTIVES: Law enforcement personnel (LEP) are often the first responders to many accident/crime scenes. Since most of these incidents involve handling of blood/body secretions these personnel are at risk of being exposed to HIV. Furthermore, the misconceptions and fears involved in handling such items may interfere with the optimal handling of the situation. We undertook a training program for local LEP on the basic issues of communicability of HIV and administered a pre/post test in order to ascertain the adequacy of this inservice program.

METHODS: We used an audio-visual program consisting of a 2 hour didactic session every day for 25 days and a videotape entitled "AIDS Avoidance for Law Enforcement Consultants". A true/false form was used for the 20 question testing to analyze the impact of the program. Each correct answer was given one point. The scores were compared using the t-test for independent samples, based on the number of correct responses. The inservice concluded with a question/answer session and a questionnaire focusing on personal attitudes.

RESULTS: TABULAR DATA, SEE ABSTRACT VOLUME.

CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study support the efficacy of such educational programs for LEP, enhancing their capability to handle potential infectious material and altering their behavior towards HIV infected subjects.

Keywords: AEGIS, Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome, HIV, HIV Infections, Health Education, HIV-1, Schools, Attitude, Curriculum, Education, Continuing, Risk, education, ICA6

900620
ThD880