Abstract

Aim: In 2016 Baja California went up to the sixth place in incidence of cases from HIV/AIDS. People are getting used to the disease and stopped paying attention to it. To understand this tendency we must determine grade knowledge of the population.
Material and methods: Descriptive, transversal and correlative study. 400 people between 17-74 years old were surveyed with an instrument consisting in a polytomous test of 27 items about HIV/AIDS, covering: general knowledge, mechanism of transmission and its prevention. Groups were divided by sex and age: 17-30, 31-45, 46-60, >60 years old. Results were considered sufficient when more than 80% of answers were correct, regular for 60-79%, and deficient if < 59%. Also; age, sex, scholarship and grade of knowledge were determinated. Odds ratios were made to findcorrelation.
Results: Those surveyed were 228 women and 172 men (43%); 58.5% between 17 and 30 years old, 22.5% from 31 to 45; 15.5% from 46 to 60 and 3.5% were >60 years old. The average age was 31 years. Scholarship: 41.5% (166) were currently bachelor students. 20.75% obtained a degree. 16.7% graduated from high school. The average qualification was 66.9%. Prevention knowledge was very low (26% of answered correctly). 30% showed deficient knowledge. Once correlation tests were made, no statistical relation was found between sex, age and level of knowledge (p= >0.005).
Conclusions and Recommendations: Most of general population lack of knowledge, there is too much misinformation about prevention. We recommend more sex education programs at all levels.