Journal of North Khorasan

Abstract Background & Objective: One of the serious challenges in human societies is the pandemy of AIDS therefore, raising people’s awareness of AIDS may be an effective preventive measure against this disease. The aim of the present research was to compare the two teaching methods of lecturing and the provision of pamphlets on the knowledge and attitude of high school students in the city of Mane & Semelghan with regard to AIDS. The study was performed in 2010. Material & Method: This is a Quasi-experimental study that was conducted on 394 students. Subjects were divided into three groups of control, pamphlet and lecture through sampling methods of multi stages. The students’ knowledge and attitude were measured before and after intervention. Data was collected through questionnaires and was analysed by SPSS 16. The statistical methods of Paired t-test and Analysis of Variance was used to analyze the data. Results: Findings showed no significant difference between the three groups in knowledge and attitude before intervention. On the other hand, after the intervention there was a significant difference between the three groups (P <0.001 & p=0.01 for knowledge and attitude respectively). The pamphlet method had no significant effect on knowledge (P =0.36) and attitude (P =0.16) of the students, while teaching by lecture had a significant positive effect on students' knowledge and attitude (P<0.001). Conclusion: the data of this study show that the use of lectures as an educational method is more effective than the pamphlet method for improving knowledge and attitiude in students.