AIDS knowledge and attitudes for May and June 1988. Provisional data from the National Health Interview Survey.

The National Center for Health Statistics has included a special set of supplemental questions on the adult popu­ lation’s knowledge and attitudes about acquired immuno­ deficiency syndrome (AIDS) in the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS). The first AIDS Knowledge and Attitudes Survey was in the field from August through December 1987. Provisional results of that survey were published on a monthly basis in Advance Data for Vital and Health Statistics (Nos. 146, 148,150, 151, and 153). During the first four months of 1988, the NHIS AIDS question­ naire was revised to meet current program needs for information about AIDS awareness. The revised AIDS Knowledge and Awareness Survey entered the field in May 1988. This report presents provisional findings for May and June, the first two months of data collection with the new questionnaire. The Advance Data reports describing the NHIS AIDS data have been restricted to simple descriptive statistics to facilitate their timely release. Thus, these reports do not attempt to explain or interpret differences among popula­ tion subgroups in AIDS knowledge or to examine relationships among various measures of knowledge, attitudes, and perceived risk. The 1987 and 1988 NHIS AIDS data bases will permit more complex analyses than those presented in this series of Advance Data reports, and such analyses are being undertaken by various groups in the Public Health Service. The AIDS questionnaires were designed to provide estimates of public knowledge and attitudes about AIDS transmission and prevention of AIDS virus infection. The data were needed as input for the planning and develop­ ment of AIDS educational campaigns and for monitoring major educational efforts, e.g., the series of radio and television public service announcements entitled “America Responds to AIDS” and the brochure “Understanding AID$” both developed by the Centers for Disease Control. The 1987 and 1988 AIDS questionnaires were devel­ oped by the National Center for Health Statistics and interagency working groups established by the Information, Education and Risk Factor Reduction Subcommittee of the Public Health Service Executive Task Force on AIDS. The working groups included representatives from the Centers for Disease Control; the National Institutes of Health; the Alcohol, Drug Abuse and Mental Health Administratio~ and the Health Resources and Services Administration. The current AIDS questionnaire includes items on sources of AIDS information, self-assessed level of AIDS Imowledgq basic facts about the AIDS virus and how it is transmitted; blood donation experience awareness of and experience with the blood test for the AIDS virus; per­ ceived effectiveness of selected preventive measure% selfassessed chances of getting the AIDS viruy personal acquaintance with persons with AIDS or the AIDS viruq and willingness to take part in a proposed national seropre­ valence survey. A general risk behavior question, similar to that asked by the Red Cross of potential blood donors, is included in the 1988 AIDS questionnaire. This report presents provisional data for May and June 1988 for most items included in the AIDS questionnaire, including questions designed to monitor the household mailing of the AIDS information brochure, coordinated by the Centers for Disease Control. Tables 1 and 2, for May and June respectively, display percent distributions of persons 18 years of age and over by response categories according to age, sex, race, and education. In most cases, the actual question asked of the respondent is reproduced