An insight among students of health sciences towards HIV/AIDS: A cross sectional study in coastal Karnataka

The objective of this paper is to assess the level of knowledge about HIV/AIDS among Interns of a Dental and Medical College. The data is collected through structured questionnaire by cross sectional study method with the sample size of 246. The model is tested on a context of Interns of dental and medical students for the first time. The present study has used a reflective measurement model. Due to the model complexity, the use of Partial Least Square-Structural Equation Modelling approach is found to be appropriate for the purpose of analysis of constructs and their corresponding data. The structural model has proved that the path coefficient value and empirical t values of exogenous latent variables on endogenous latent variable are above that threshold value in relationship between knowledge and trust as well as perception and trust except attitude and trust. The testing of hypothesis confirms the strong relationship between knowledge and trust as well as perception and trust. Based on the results of Importance Performance Matrix Analysis results corporate need focus on changing the perception of interns primarily. Hence, medical college must aim at increasing the performance of the target construct trust so their first priority should be to improve the performance aspects captured by the construct perception performance by improving its total effects as this construct has high chance to improve its total effect which in turn improves its performance.