LABORATORY TECHNOLOGISTS ATTITUDES TOWARDS AIDS AND AIDS PATIENTS

The purpose of this study was to examine the attitudes of laboratory s taff towards AIDS and AIDS patients and related factors. The populatio n consisted of the working-age laboratory technologists living in Finl and (n = 5 973). A sample of 249 laboratory technologists was selected from the register of the National Research and Development Centre for Welfare and Health using systematic random selection. The material wa s collected with a questionnaire. The younger laboratory technologists had more knowledge about AIDS than the older ones, and those who had more knowledge about AIDS had a more positive attitude than those with less knowledge. The attitudes were connected with the way the disease was contracted: the most positive attitudes were expressed towards th e patients who had contracted AIDS through blood transfusion and the m ost negative towards the patients who had contracted AIDS from non-ste rile needles. The factor analysis yielded six factors representing att itudes. The fear factor explained most (19%) of the laboratory technol ogists' attitudes towards AIDS and AIDS patients. The older laboratory technologists were more afraid of work-related infections than the yo unger ones. The laboratory technologists dth adequate knowledge of AID S were less afraid of contracting the virus than those with little kno wledge. They wanted information mainly on the care of AIDS patients, o n how to respond to them and on the ways AIDS is transmitted.