Decentralizing HIV/AIDS Education in the Philippines: A Measure of Awareness from the Grassroots

Abstract

The HIV/AIDS is pandemic. The study measured the level of understanding of the community on HIV/AIDS as part of measuring the impact of decentralized initiative against HIV/AIDS. It applies the Systems’ Theory of Policy Process developed by David Easton. The study showed that: age, gender, civil status and religion have nothing to do with the level of understanding of the HIV/AIDS. The study revealed that respondents’ of the issue of HIV/AIDS as measured in terms of knowledge, attitudes and beliefs fall within the median range of scores: 2.89 for knowledge, 2.59 for beliefs and 2.93 for attitudes. The study further concluded that there is no significant relationship between the personal profile of the respondents and their level of understanding. The study found that heightened understanding of HIV/AIDS among Rural Health Unit 4 respondents was due to decentralized mass information and dissemination campaign of the Local Government Unit.