THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE PLHIV LOOK AND LISTEN CAMPAIGN ON THE LEVEL OF KNOWLEDGE OF HIV/AIDS AMONG YOUNG PEOPLE

Abstract

A surge in new HIV/AIDS cases occurred in several parts of Indonesia during the COVID-19 pandemic. The trigger for the spike in cases was also due to the lack of knowledge of adolescents about HIV/AIDS, which amounted to 11.4%, so intervention is needed to increase HIV/AIDS knowledge in adolescents to overcome HIV. The intervention was in the form of a PLHIV Look and Listen Campaign on HIV/AIDS using audiovisual media. The purpose of the study was to assess the effectiveness of the PLHIV Look and Listen Campaign on the level of HIV/AIDS knowledge through WhatsApp among young people in Surakarta. The intervention mechanism used personal chat and custom WhatsApp stories addressed only to intervention group respondents. The research design was Randomized Controlled Trial, Pretest-Posttest Control Group with randomization design. The inclusion criteria were 15-24 years old who lived in Manahan, Setabelan, Sumber (Surakarta City), were active WhatsApp users, and were willing to become respondents. Intervention and data collection were conducted online. Data analysis used the T-Test test with a significance level of 95%. The results showed that the mean knowledge score after the intervention period was significantly (p-value 0.001 <0.05) higher in the intervention group (8.67 ± 1.24) than the mean of the control group (5.33 ± 1.68). The treatment in the form of the PLHIV Look and Listen Campaign was effective in increasing HIV/AIDS knowledge among adolescents after the intervention period. HIV program managers should replicate this campaign to increase HIV knowledge among young people.