Beliefs about AIDS as determinants of preventive practices and of support for coercive measures

R. Allard

American Journal of Public Health, 1989, vol. 79, issue 4, 448-452

Abstract: We performed a telephone survey to explore relations between knowledge, beliefs (as defined in the Health Belief Model) and reported AIDS-preventive practices in a sample of 1,072 persons ages 18-65, living in the Montreal health region. AIDS-preventive practices were more frequent among the young or single, and among those with one of four health beliefs: perceiving oneself as particularly susceptible to AIDS, perceiving the disease as particularly severe, perceiving it as particularly amenable to prevention, and having a strong general health motivation. Support for coercive measures to control the AIDS epidemic was widespread but was stronger among the less educated, married people, and those with a high level of one of the following beliefs about AIDS: perceived severity, susceptibility, curability, or barriers to treatment. AIDS-preventive practices and support for coercion under epidemic conditions share their most important modifiable determinants: perceived severity of AIDS and perceived susceptibility to it. This finding suggests that emphasizing them, as is done so often in public educational campaigns about AIDS, may indeed promote preventive practices, but may also unwittingly increase support for coercive measures toward people with the disease or at high risk of it.

Date: 1989
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aph:ajpbhl:1989:79:4:448-452_1

Access Statistics for this article

American Journal of Public Health is currently edited by Alfredo Morabia

More articles in American Journal of Public Health from American Public Health Association
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Christopher F Baum ().