A Look at the Changes in Public Awareness of AIDS in the United States from 1987-1994

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Kimberly Barlow-Miller and Dr. Ray Merrill, Health Science

In 1980-81, five homosexual men in California were found to have a strain of pneumonia normally found only in the suppressed immune systems of the elderly. They were later diagnosed with the first cases of a rare and new disease known as Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). This event has brought about a greater awareness of the AIDS disease among the population of the United States, as evidenced in the results of the AIDS supplement sections of the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) from 1987 to 1994. Using questions asked of a representative sample of the US population, our research determined the extent to which AIDS awareness has changed between 1987 and 1994.

In our research we saw a general increase in the trends of AIDS knowledge among the US population from 1987-1994. In this same time period AIDS infection and death decreased. This may be related to the increased knowledge of how AIDS is spread shown in this report.

Most people surveyed said they only had ‘some’ knowledge of AIDS, although overall perception of personal AIDS knowledge is increasing. This increase can be evidenced by the increase in the accuracy of answers to the questions asked in the survey. Table 1 shows the percentage of people that answered correctly to each question analyzed. Those who thought that it was ‘very unlikely’ or ‘definitely not possible’ to contract AIDS from working near infected individuals (worknear) has decreased from 56.9% to 48.1%. The percentage of people who thought that it was ‘very unlikely’ or ‘definitely not possible’ to pass AIDS by using public toilets (pubtoil) was 42.4% in 1987, and increased to 71.5% in 1994. Increases were also seen in other variables including the likelihood of contracting AIDS from sharing utensils (sharutin) or from coughing or sneezing (cough). Age was also an important factor in the amount of knowledge a person had about AIDS/HIV. Those age 70 and over had less of an increase in knowledge than those in lower age groups. When asked whether sharing needles (sharneed) was a probable method of contracting AIDS, those who answered ‘very likely’ approached 100% for all years and age groups. Those who believed that AIDS can not be passed by attending school (attensch) with an AIDS infected
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individual was the highest of all false transmission questions in 1987 at 61%, but had less of an increase than other questions, reading 73.4% in 1994.

True/false questions asked on the survey included; passing AIDS through sexual intercourse (passsex), through the placenta from mother to child (babyav); the existence of an AIDS vaccine (aidvacc); and the non-existence of a cure for AIDS (nocure). Correct answers to all questions were high for all age groups and for all years, although those who answered ‘don’t know’ increased between 1991-1994. This increase may be due to a difference in the way that the participants were asked the questions since it is an oral survey. Those who answered that condoms (condoms) were ‘very effective’ for stopping the transmission of HIV, has decreased from 31.2% to 17.8%. This is the only variable that has decreased. This decrease could be due to the fact that condoms are generally not used appropriately or regularly, thus personal belief of its effectiveness in preventing disesase transmissions between partners is low.

Since the initial AIDS outbreak, numerous programs and campaigns have been implemented to curtail an outbreak of AIDS, and seem to have considerably affected AIDS knowledge and education in the U.S. The Surgeon General made two statements about AIDS, one in 1988 and again in 1992. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has run many educational programs including an interactive website to train employers on how to educate their workers, as well as a gigantic campaign launched in 1987.2 The National AIDS Clearinghouse sent out information on AIDS, many Public Service Announcements were aired and a brochure entitled “Understanding AIDS” was sent to all U.S. households.3 Other social events, such as Magic Johnson’s announcement of his HIV positive status and the use of new AIDS drugs, also could have increased AIDS knowledge in the US. Legendary actors Rock Hudson and Robert Reed, the father on the TV show The Brady Bunch, both died as a result of AIDS complications, gaining attention from the American population. The first World AIDS Day, promoting international AIDS awareness, was celebrated in 1988. From 1987 to about 1990 average knowledge levels of the US population for the specific questions analyzed steadily increased/decreased (whichever is appropriate). After 1990 knowledge levels showed less of an increase/decrease. This could reflect the amount of attention given to AIDS/HIV in the late 80s and the subsequent decrease in knowledge in the early 90s.

Knowledge levels seem to be increasing, but there is room for improvement. More sophisticated means of analyzing the data is needed to make any definitive conclusions about the results found. The resources available did not allow for this kind of analyzation

References

  • Centers for Disease Control (1981). Pneumocystis pneumonia—Los Angeles. M.M.W.R., 30:250
  • E. Singer, T.F. Rogers, & M.B. Glassman (1991). Public opinion about AIDS before and after the 1988 U.S. government public information campaign. Public Opinion Quarterly, 55(2): 161-79.
  • K.R. Williams, D.D. Dawson, & P. Murdock (1989, June 4-9). Evaluation of the national AIDS multi-media public information campaign. Int Conf AIDS, 5:829.
  • Special thanks to Sabrina Yrungaray for helping with research, and Matt Madden for his continual help with the statistics