Israeli professionals' knowledge and attitudes towards AIDS

This paper explores Israeli professionals' knowledge about and attitudes towards AIDS. While AIDS in Israel is not generally considered to be a pressing crisis, the aim of the research is to document and analyze what professionals in the helping professions know and how they feel about AIDS. The study also explores thoughts and feelings concerning AIDS-related education and training. The study sample consists of 370 professionals, including social workers, nurses, occupational therapists, psychologists, and special education teachers and counselors. Results indicate that professionals' knowledge scores were significantly higher than their attitude scores. Significant differences were found according to nationality and perception of adequate training. Jews were more knowledgeable than Arabs, and those who perceived their AIDS-related training as adequate were more knowledgeable than those who did not. The attitude scores related to both gender and nationality. Women scored higher than men, and again Jews scored higher than Arabs. Two regression models predicting both knowledge and attitude are presented and their implications are discussed. As far as differences among the various professional groups, no differences appear in their knowledge scores; however, nurses scored significantly lower on the attitude scale than did the other groups.