Campaign development
We are analyzing a student-led public health campaign coordinated by 97 Brazilian medical students of Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Campinas (PUC Campinas) in 2015, 2018, and 2023; the program inspires local leadership, innovation, and partnership to ultimately consign HIV/AIDS to history and help achieve a core principle of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations (8).
This study evaluates the campaign's impact on spreading awareness of HIV/AIDS and assesses the efficacy of its approach. We propose a model of student-led public health campaign that can be reproduced in other medical schools’ curricula worldwide.
In collaboration with IFMSA Brazil and the local reference center for HIV and AIDS, the students have developed an impactful program with the following goals:
- Enhance awareness about the criticality of adhering to HIV screening among adolescents, adults, and pregnant individuals, thereby encouraging more individuals to get tested.
- Improve health outcomes by promoting early screening and timely treatment, thereby reducing the transmission and progression of HIV and AIDS.
- Foster comprehensive knowledge and understanding of HIV and AIDS among the target population, ensuring accurate information is disseminated.
- Inform students how to navigate evidence-based screening guidelines.
- Demonstrate responsibility by organizing an event alongside fellow students and professionals, collecting valuable data, and educating the next generation of students on campaign organization and implementation.
- Provide a platform for students to practice engaging in discussions on sensitive topics associated with social stigma, fostering empathy and understanding.
- Advocate for the eradication of social stigma surrounding individuals living with HIV, promoting inclusivity, acceptance, and support.
- Engage actively with Global Health initiatives and contribute to the goals set by IFMSA, furthering the organization's mission in addressing HIV and AIDS on a global scale.
By aligning these goals, the campaign aims to effectively raise awareness, improve health outcomes, educate the public, combat stigma, and meaningfully contribute to global health efforts.
To objectively measure the campaign’s main goals, we have developed a questionnaire (Table 1) that evaluates participants' knowledge before and after the campaign.
Table 1
Questionnaire to evaluate the campaign’s impact, used initially in Portuguese in our campaign in Brazil and translated to English for this paper. Participants were asked to grade 1 (limited knowledge), grade 2 (intermediate knowledge), or 3 (satisfactory knowledge) pre- and post-campaign.
What is your level of knowledge about rapid HIV tests?
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1
|
2
|
3
|
Do you know the symptoms of AlDS?
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1
|
2
|
3
|
After our informative conversation,
please rate your level of knowledge about HIV rapid tests.
|
1
|
2
|
3
|
After our informative conversation, please rate your level of knowledge about AIDS symptoms.
|
1
|
2
|
3
|
Process
The campaign process began with the formation of a 5-member coordinators group, with one individual designated as the principal coordinator. The team’s first task was to recruit additional student volunteers utilizing various channels such as personal invitations and social media outreach.
The principal coordinator assumed the responsibility of scheduling a training session with a professor expert for all the student-volunteers and arranging a visit to the local reference center for HIV/AIDS for the members of the coordinators group. Clear communication was established to ensure that all student-volunteers were informed in advance about the scheduled training. The principal coordinator also established a message group containing all student-volunteers to solve questions and inform about the scheduled training.
To facilitate active participation in the campaign, at PUC-Campinas, all students underwent a one-hour training session conducted by Professor Dr. Altacyr Pinaffo Dalla Bernardina, an infectologist. Additionally, they received an explanation from the principal coordinator about the campaign regarding the event's dynamics and goals. Although the medical school of PUC Campinas’ second-year curriculum included content on HIV infection in immunology, the students previously had no formal training on how to engage patients in conversations about HIV and AIDS and limited practical knowledge regarding how to broach stigmatized topics more broadly. As such, the coordinator group elected to collaborate with the local HIV and AIDS reference center of Campinas to arrange a focused training session for the coordinators group regarding raising awareness about HIV/AIDS among the participants.
The campaign involved 74 student volunteers in 2015, 7 volunteers in 2018, and 16 volunteers in 2023, totalling 97 student volunteers. The volunteers were assigned shifts for leafleting at four separate campaign locations: PUC Campinas Hospital, Parque das Bandeiras Mall, Taquaral Park, and Campinas Bus Terminal. The choice for the locations varied by year. At each site, volunteer participants were paired up with another student.
Through consultation with the HIV and AIDS reference center in Campinas in addition to our own review of the literature, we crafted our own leaflet (Figs. 1 and 2) aiming to address the most important information in a concise and accurate manner. Below is the handout's translated and adapted version:
Volunteers also distributed red ribbon brooches, which symbolize the Fight Against AIDS. Through these materials, the campaign aimed to educate the public about the importance of getting tested, information about testing locations, and the significance of measures such as condom usage to prevent transmission. We have designed the process flowchart (Fig. 3) to help students track the basic steps for campaign organization. Still, we also encourage future students to be creative and experiment with different approaches.
Additionally, two campaign participants carried posters with the messages "Today is World AIDS Day" and "I am HIV positive" while circulating at the campaign sites. With the second poster, the ultimate teaching objective was to highlight that the chances of contracting HIV by touching an HIV-positive person were equivalent to touching the poster itself: zero (7). This activity aimed to destigmatize HIV-positive individuals and foster solidarity with them. The response to this activity was overwhelmingly positive, particularly resonating with an HIV-positive woman who expressed the impact of prejudice on affected individuals leading to loneliness, guilt, and fear. Thus, the campaign aimed to raise HIV/AIDS awareness, educate the public, and promote compassion and support for the lived experiences of those with HIV/AIDS.
Each year, on December 1st, the world celebrates World AIDS Day. People around the world unite to show support for people living with HIV/AIDS and to remember those who have died from AIDS-related illnesses (8). As students, we recognized an opportunity to host the 2015 and 2018 programs on December 1st of those years, though the 2023 campaign was completed on May 27th.
Campaign Evaluation
The questionnaires used by student volunteerss to evaluate participants in 2015, 2018, and 2023 were similar, but data collection was performed in differing formats. Specifically, in 2015 and 2018, program participants were given pen and paper questionnaires that they completed and returned to the students. However, in 2023, participants were provided with a QR code for an online questionnaire. It was observed that there was a marked decrease in the response rate for the 2023 questionnaire (from 100–10%). We hypothesized that many participants who intended to complete the questionnaire on their cell phones at their leisure ended up forgetting to submit their answers. Although one drawback of the pen and paper format is that the responsibility falls on the students to store and later process the collected answers, we would ultimately recommend the paper and pen format of the questionnaire for future implementation of the campaign due to substantially increased response rates.