HEALTH BELIEFS AND INTENTION TO GET IMMUNIZED FOR HIV

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relationship of health beliefs to intention to accept human immunodeficiency virus (H IV) vaccination.Methods: Respondents were 81 female and 44 male colleg e students who completed self-administered questionnaires. Questionnai res included items assessing intention to get vaccinated for HIV and t he following health beliefs: perceived susceptibility to HIV infection , severity of AIDS, benefits of HIV immunization, pragmatic obstacles to vaccination, conditional nonmembership in a risk group, fear of the vaccine, and fear of needles. Results: Nearly 30% of the subjects wer e uncertain about or opposed to getting immunized for HIV. Susceptibil ity, severity, pragmatic obstacles, conditional nonmembership in a ris k group, and fear of the vaccine were significantly correlated with in tent to get vaccinated. Fear of needles, gender, and race were not ass ociated with intent to get an HIV vaccine. Multiple regression analysi s identified susceptibility, benefits, pragmatic obstacles, nonmembers hip in a risk group, and fear of the vaccine as significant independen t predictors of intent to vaccinate. Conclusions: These preliminary su rvey findings demonstrate that intention to accept HIV immunization is not universal and that health beliefs may influence HIV vaccine accep tance. They suggest that it may be important to consider the effects o f psychological factors in future research on HIV vaccine acceptance a nd in the ultimate implementation of HIV immunization programs. (C) So ciety for Adolescent Medicine, 1997.