Introduction: Levels of awareness and knowledge about, HIV/AIDS vary widely around the world. According to recent surveys from over 40 countries, more than half of young people most at risk—those aged 15–24—have serious misconceptions about how the virus is transmitted (UNAIDS, 2004) and in 21 countries in sub-Saharan Africa more than 60 % of young women have not heard of the virus and have a lot of misconceptions about how it is spread. Objective: To determine influence of media campaign on HIV/AIDS awareness among adolescents in government secondary schools a case study of Tororo Municipality. Method: This was a cross sectional descriptive and analytical study design that involved 406 respondents sampled from 4 government secondary schools in Tororo municipality. The study involved both qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection. The data collected was entered in epidata and exported to SPSS v16 for analysis. The study measured both exposure (media) and outcome (student response to the media information on awareness and HIV/AIDS prevention strategies). The dependent variable was measured on three outcomes; high, moderate and low level of HIV/AIDS awareness. For numerical variables, the outcome measurement (level of HIV/AIDS awareness) was nominal on three scales; high (coded ―2‖), moderate (coded ―1‖) and low (coded ―0‖). As a result, the multinominal logistic regression analysis was used to analyze the relationship between media sources and level of HIV/AIDS awareness. Results are expressed in odds ratios (OR) with the associated 95% confidence intervals and probability values (p-values). P-values less than 5% at bivariate analysis were considered statistically significant as well as at multivariate analysis. For qualitative data, content analysis was used and results formulated into quotations. The quotations were use to explain findings in the quantitative analysis. Results: The main media sources used for HIV/AIDS information were radios (47.19%), newspapers (16.33%), television (20.41%) and the internet (16.07%). 18.58% of the adolescent students had high level of HIV/AIDS awareness, 52.42% had moderate level of HIV/AIDS awareness and 29.01% had low level of HIV/AIDS awareness. There was a significant association between media sources and level of HIV/AIDS awareness (Chi-squared test (DF=6, n=392), p=0.019). Internet preference was associated with increased likelihood of low (aOR=4.97, 95%CI: 1.94-12.75, p=0.001) and moderate (aOR=2.38, 95%CI: 1.05-5.39, p=0.038) level of HIV/AIDS awareness compared to radio. However, the use of school curriculum (aOR=0.25, 95%CI: 0.07-0.88, p=0.03) and medical education (aOR=0.32, 95%CI: 0.18-0.59, p=<0.001) were significantly associated with decreased moderate levels of HIV/AIDS awareness compared to peer education. Conclusion: Level of HIV/AIDS awareness was acceptably good. Radios remain the commonest and preferred media source for HIV/AIDS awareness in secondary schools and it needs to be promoted over other media sources to promote and enhance HIV/AIDS awareness. The inclusion of HIV/AIDS in the curriculum remains another option for enhancing HIV/AIDS knowledge in secondary

show more