Students’ Awareness and Attitudes to Billboards Campaigns on Sexual Behaviour and HIV/AIDS in Selected Tertiary Institutions of Adamawa State, Nigeria.

Abstract

The National Agency for Controlling AIDS (NACA) and State Agency for Controlling AIDS (SACA) have designed advertising messages on billboards in Nigerian university campuses to sensitize students on the prevalence of HIV/AIDS in Nigeria. However, the rate at which the disease is spreading is becoming worrisome. This study is therefore carried out to determine the impact of the billboards on HIV/AIDS on the sexual behaviour of tertiary institutions’ students towards the disease. The study is titled,” Students’ Awareness and Attitudes to Billboards Campaigns on Sexual Behaviour and HIV/AIDS in Selected Tertiary Institutions of Adamawa State, Nigeria. “ It has the objectives of examining how often the students of the selected tertiary institutions in Adamawa are exposed to Billboards on HIV/AIDS, determining the extent to which students believe in adverts on HIV/AIDS through billboard on campuses, finding out the influence of Billboards on HIV/AIDS on sexual behaviour of male and female students of the selected tertiary institutions in Adamawa State, and finding out whether there are other factors that influence the sexual behaviour of students of selected tertiary institutions
in Adamawa State. The study adopted the survey research design and sampled 380 students from the tertiary institutions in Adamawa State using questionnaire titled, “IBSBADASTATE”. The study was anchored on the Persuasion theory. The findings indicated that billboard messages help students to abstain from unnecessary sex, or engage in protective sex and avoid risky sexual behaviours that have potential for contracting sexually transmitted diseases within and outside these campuses. The study therefore recommended that, even though students’ sexual behaviour is influenced by their exposure to billboards on HIV/AIDS, other means of reaching them with persuasive messages about the disease such as radio, television, newspapers, magazines, social media, friends, face-to-face meetings and so on, should not be neglected or taken for granted. The study also recommended that since billboards adverts on HIV/AIDS have significant influence on the sexual behaviour of students, more of them should be put up on campuses of tertiary institutions across Nigeria.