Evolution of HIV knowledge in China: has China succeeded in improving women's knowledge about HIV/AIDS?

Olga Maslovskaya, University of Southampton
Peter W.F. Smith, University of Southampton
James J. Brown, University of London
Sabu S. Padmadas, University of Southampton

HIV prevalence in China is currently less than one percent, but due to the large population this translates into a large number of people. The number of people living with HIV is growing and moving beyond high-risk groups to the general population. Ensuring adequate knowledge is significant for the successful prevention of HIV as adequate knowledge is an important component of a risk reduction behaviour framework. In 2003 the Chinese government responded to evidence of the spread of HIV in China and since that time prevention measures including educational campaigns were introduced in the country. In order to assess the effectiveness of the educational campaigns in China HIV knowledge will be compared across times in the country using China Reproductive Health and Family Planning Surveys (1997, 2001, 2003, 2005). HIV knowledge in China will also be compared with HIV knowledge in Kenya, Uganda, India and Moldova using recent DHS data.