December 2003

Programming for HIV Prevention in
Mexican Schools

Study Methods

The city of Toluca, within the state of Mexico, was selected as the research site due to local interest in implementing a standardized curriculum, and the similarity of its education system to that in other states, thus potentially easing transferability of the curriculum. The study was conducted in four of the eight high schools in Toluca, with two schools receiving the intervention and two schools serving as controls. To assess program effectiveness, all first-year students in the four study schools completed surveys at baseline (T1), immediately after the intervention (T2), six months after post-test (T3), and 12 months after post-test (T4).

Twenty-four counselors, teachers, and principals from the intervention schools received a 36-hour training course to give them the necessary skills to integrate “A Team Against AIDS” into the school curriculum. A pre- and post-training questionnaire was given to the teachers to determine changes in HIV-related knowledge and attitudes as well as to examine their level of comfort and confidence in teaching sensitive material.

To analyze the data collected from students, scales were developed for most variables such as HIV knowledge and attitudes toward people living with HIV and AIDS (PLHA). Analysis of variance was used to examine the resulting scores to determine significant effects of the intervention by round and study group. After analysis of the quantitative data, five focus group discussions (FGDs) were conducted with groups of eight to twelve students from all study schools. The aim was to clarify the students’ understanding and attitudes toward participating in the study so that adjustments could be made if needed.

At baseline, 2,064 students participated in the study; 946 students were identified as having participated in all four rounds of data collection. To measure changes in knowledge, attitudes, and behavior across time, some analyses were focused on this group only. The mean age of the students at baseline was 16 years. The study population was half male and half female students in the baseline and matched response groups.

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This page updated
19 Oct 2007