Concern toward HIV Acquisition in Youths of Iran: A Systematic Review study

Background and Aim: More than 30% of all new HIV infections are estimated to occur among young people worldwide. Increasing population of young people and their age of marriage in Iran has caused increasing concern of policymakers about risky behaviors of youths in this country in recent years. According to evidences, an individual’s perception of the risk of acquiring HIV is an important factor which leads to risky behaviors. This study was aimed and conducted to detect the concern toward HIV acquisition among youths of Iran. Methods: Review of literature about HIV and risk perception was performed through extensive searching in ISI, PubMed, Scopus, and Google Scholar databases. The keywords that were used for searching were; HIV, AIDS, risk perception, alcohol, STD, drugs ( Amphetamine , opium , drug ), youth, young, adolescents, teens, teenagers, student. We transferred found articles to the End Note software by two authors while supervised by a third person. Results: Among the 1036 articles surveyed, 42 met inclusion criteria finally. Findings showed that risk perception (RP) toward HIV/AIDS varied from 6.5% to 60% in different studies, especially among intravenous drug users. RP showed an inverse relationship with sexual behaviors. Conclusions: The perception of the risk of getting AIDS is a stronger predictor of the type of risky sexual behavior in youths. Thus, it is recommended that this point be taken into account more profoundly in plans for both prevention of disease and fighting against this disease by changing of an individual’s perception so that he/she does not feel immune to being afflicted by the disease.

کلیدواژه ها:

HIV ، Risk Perception ، Perceived Risk ، Concern ، Youth ، Young People