Subject: AIDS in Hongkong - social attitudes
From: [email-masked] (Winnie the Pooh)
Date: Mon, 12 Jul 93 15:08:57 WST

>From Sean Mok
----------------------------------------------

It is an internal/full report of a survey conducted by the Hong Kong
AIDS Foundation on social attitudes toward AIDS and how much do local
Chinese know about the it. The main reason for posting this is to give
you a brief idea of how people in Asia think of AIDS and for those
who are conducting research on AIDS in China/South-East Asia.
(Warning: this is a long-post)
................................................................................

Number of persons interviewed:		1245
		Male:			634
		Female:			611
		Age:			18 - 56 years

Response rate (Comparable to similar studies in other countries)
	Living-quarter sample completion rate of 60%

Results:
^^^^^^^^

1. There was a high level of general knowledge about AIDS, including its modes
   of transmission and method of prevention.

   AIDS is a fatal disease					80%
   Transmission by sharing needles				95%
   Transmission during pregnancy				83%
   Transmission by asymptomatic carriers			93%
   Need for blood test to detect infection			74%

   97% of the interviewees considered sexual conduct with an HIV carrier
   without condom to be of high risk
   When condom was used for such sexual contact, only 34% considered it to
   be of high risk

2. Some misconceptions about AIDS were still present, especially concerning
   how HIV is not tramsitted (% which were unable to give the correct
   answers)

   No transmission by non-sexual physical contact		18%
   No transmission by items belonging to HIV carriers		29%
   No transmission by sharing meals				32%
   No transmission by blood donation				36%
   No transmission by coughing					41%
   No transmission by kissing					70%
   No transmission by mosquitoes				77%
   Long incubation period					54%

3. There was a low level of supportive attitude towards HIV carriers in
   general. 70% would avoid daily social contact with them. Such negative
   attitude correlated with misconceptions about the risk of social contacts
   in transmissin of HIV.

4. Despite the hight level of knowledge, there was a low level of perceived
   threat of AIDS to the community of Hong Kong and to the interviewees
   personally

   Serious threat to community now				30%
   Serious threat to community in future			48%
   Perceived personal threat					 2%

   Further analysis revealed that this low level of perceived personal
   threat was also present among those who were practising high risk
   behaviour. In fact, over 30% of these individuals were unwilling to
v  undergo an HIV antibody test.
   u
    NDERGO an HIV anti

5. There was a higher level of sexual permissiveness among the male versus the f   female sector of the population. This correlated with the higher level of
   risk behaviour among the male population. The level of acceptance towards
   *homosexual* practice was very low

						Male		Female

   Against premarital sex for male		26%		50%
   Against premarital sex for female		35%		55%
   Against sex with prostitute			57%		77%
   Against extramarital sex for male		66%		93%
   Against extramarital sex for female		85%		95%
   Against male homosexual practice		93%		88%
   Against lesbian practice			89%		87%

6. Main source of information about AIDS was the mass media

						Primary (Overall)

   Television					71% (92%)
   Newspaper					17% (66%)
   Radio					 2% (26%)
   Magazine					 4% (20%)
   Pamphlets					 2% (15%)

7. Preferred source of AIDS-related service

			Government	Non-government		Either

   Information		51%		16%			23%
   Counselling		39%		33%			20%
   Blood test		34%		45%			17%
   Treatment		40%		40%			14%

8. Self-reported high-risk behaviour in past 12 months:

   The figures quoted represents the lower bound of actual situation due
   to the following reasons:
	Only asked about behaviour in past 12 months
	Tendency for under-reporting by interviewees
	Under-representation of those with high risk behaviour in the
	successfully interviewed sample
   In fact, none of the male interviewees admitted to having homosexual
   practice

						Male		Female

   Sex with casual partner			3.3%		0.7%
   Sex with multiple reqular partners		2.5%		1.0%
   Sex with prostitute				3.9%		NA
   Drug injection				0,8%		0.5%

   Any risk behaviour				7.8%		2.3%

   On further analysis, self-reported high risk behaviour was more common
   in the following subgroups:

	13.5% of male aged between 21 - 31 years
	13.7% of never married male

   There was no relationship between high risk behaviour was more common
   in the education level, income group or religious belief.

9. Female population are mianly exposed to the threat of HIV through
   their male regular partner

	5.3% of married male had high risk behaviour
	48% of male practising high risk behaviour were married

	Only 36% reported consistent use of condom with their regular
	partner

   The in-depth interviews also support the above findings:
	The risky youths tend to have a low perceived level of threat and
	rarely take any precaution
	The male homosexuals have a high perceived level of threat and most
	are practising safer sex
	In addition, both groups demonstrate the strong effect of peer
	influence on their behaviour

................................................................................
Deal to the lenght of the report, I am reluctant to add my
personal comments, but you're welcome to do so.
(typos and silly mistakes are mind)

--------------------------
Horizons
Lesbian & Gay Hotline
HongKong

Sean Mok