Perception & PracticeHa Tran, Danwei Wu, and Tong Xu

Perception & Practice

• In 2012, Know Your Status, a HIV/AIDS awareness group at Duke, published results from a three year study on 1,000 Duke students:

• 55.4% of students exhibited risky behavior, including unprotected sex, sharing needles, and having two or more sexual partners in the past year

• However, 90.7% of these same students considered themselves at a “very low risk” or “nonexistent risk” of HIV

• Is there a disparity between perception of HIV/AIDS risk at Duke and daily practices of safe sex at Duke?

Students’ perception of HIV/AIDS• “When I hook up with someone, I feel pretty safe. I’m on birth

control, and I mean, we’re all Duke students so there’s really small risk of HIV.”

• “Of course I’m concerned with HIV/AIDS…but not on campus. I know it’s an epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa—that’s what we should be concerned about.”

• “My research is focused on HIV/AIDS, but honestly, it’s just lab work to me. I don’t really see it as a threat in my personal life.”

“Research has shown that a large proportion of young people are not concerned about becoming infected with HIV. This lack of awareness can translate into not taking measures that could protect their health.”

–Center for Disease Control and Prevention, April 24, 2013

HIV/AIDS is closer than we think• In 2004, North Carolina health workers identified the first HIV

outbreak among college students in North Carolina.-Conference on Retrovirus and Opportunistic Infections

• “We decided to call this an outbreak because we saw such a dramatic increase in the number of HIV cases among college students. Plus, the fact that we found many cases of acute or recent infection means there is a concern that the infection is spreading,” said Dr. Lisa Hightow, an Infectious Disease Fellow at UNC Chapel Hill

• “The rise in the number of college students with HIV is a concern of ours,” said Administrative Coordinator of Student Health and Health Education Specialist, Ray Rodriguez, “We are not in a vacuum.”

• Duke Student Health Director Dr. Bill Christmas: “..students are now beginning to use testing as a way of prevention, rather than safer sex practices.”

“HIV outbreak hits college campuses,” Duke Chronicle, February 15, 2004

Goals of P&P Project• Gauge perception of HIV/AIDS in the Duke student body• How informed are Duke students about HIV/AIDS?• How can be increase awareness of HIV/AIDS in a way that is

conducive to college students? • Identify current practices of safe sex in the Duke student body• Ultimately, we want to identify why the disparity between

perception and practice exists, and what we can do to eliminate it

Utilize social media• Used multiple forms of social media to achieve project goals

• Facebook: The Blue Perspective—spread HIV/AIDS awareness• Duke Qualtrics—conduct survey on student body to identify practice

of safe sex

Perception• We created the A for Awareness campaign, where students

would be quizzed on HIV/AIDS related topics• A for Awareness helped us educate and reinforce HIV/AIDs

topics in the Duke community• The quiz format was developed to stimulate normal testing

environments for students, who are already familiar with learning through quizzes and tests in the classroom

• Students who got an “A” on their quiz received a picture to spread awareness to their friends on social media sites

• During our 3-week campaign, we reached students from all different student organization, backgrounds, and socioeconomic levels

The Blue Perspective

Students help spread awareness

A for Awareness Reach

A for Awareness Reach

Practice of Safe Sex• In order to identify safe sex behavior in the student body, we

created a survey to gain:• Demographics (major, gender sexual orientation, student

organizations)• Opinions about sex-related activities• Personal reports on sexual activity

• Ran statistical analysis of responses

Results• Gender and power dynamics in the bedroom:

Pearson Chi-Square p = 0.006

Results• Gender and power dynamics in the bedroom:• Men are more likely to view men and women as having equal say

in the bedroom. • Women are more likely to view men as the more dominant

gender in the bedroom.

Responses• Do you think that men and women have equal say in the

bedroom?• “Unfortunately, I don’t think they have an equal say. It seems like it’s

the woman’s role to say “No” when she feels uncomfortable, but there’s this unspoken default of “Yes.”

Results• Major and power dynamics:

Pearson Chi-Square p = 0.021

Results• Science and math major were more likely to view bedroom

power dynamics as equal. • Gender was a confounding variable since major and gender was

found to be correlated. In the sample, nearly all the males reported that they were science and math majors.

Results• Duke Students tend to overestimate the number sexual

partners their peers have.

Results• Duke Dating Culture:• 73% of responder did not think that dating at Duke is like dating

outside of Duke.• Many responded saying that Duke is a ‘safe communal space.’

• 100% of responded thought that non-Duke students were at a higher risk of transmitting STDs.

• Approximately 92% of responders used protection during their most recent sexual encounter.

Results• Trends that were not statistically significant:• 30% of women have intervened while only 12.5% of men have

intervened on a friend they believe was about to engage in risky sexual behavior.

Findings and Implications• A majority of Duke students do practice safe sex

• While students may not view HIV as a risk, the majority of individuals use protection

• Brings up social issue between bedroom dynamics between men and women• May continue after college

Limitations• Sample size and diversity of sample• Mainly heterosexual• Mainly women• Small sample size

Leaving Duke• All students perceived a higher risk of HIV/AIDS outside of

Duke• Once students leave, what can we do?

Looking forward• Publicize our findings to the Duke community in order to

inform the student body• Facebook page• The Chronicle• FACE AIDS• Duke Student Health

• Continue promoting The Blue Perspective Facebook page• Create an Awareness collage, comprised of pictures of Duke

students, to display on campus• Continue gathering data on the survey to gain a larger

participant pool—perhaps publish those findings next semester as a follow-up study

Any questions?