This dissertation, "The effectiveness of school-based peer education on the risk of HIV/STD: a systematic review" by Ying, Wang, 王穎, was obtained from The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong) and is being sold pursuant to Creative Commons: Attribution 3.0 Hong Kong License. The content of this dissertation has not been altered in any way. We have altered the formatting in order to facilitate the ease of printing and reading of the dissertation. All rights not granted by the above license are retained by the author. Abstract: Background HIV/AIDS has always been a concern since it first came up in 1981 in the field of medicine and public health. The trend of overall HIV epidemic has slow down through over 30 years fighting against the disease. Yet, being the largest population nowadays, young people still face high risk of HIV/AID. Sexual transmitted diseases, similar with HIV infection, are also a serious concern in young people. Peer education is widely used in the sexual education in young people. No review focused on the school-based peer education while most young people received their sexual education in schools. This systematic review aims to evaluate the effectiveness of school-based peer education on HIV/STD prevention and evaluate the factors that are likely to influence the effect of school-based peer education. Method Searching through PubMed and Cochrane Library, a literature review was carried out on the relevant articles about the evaluation of school-based peer education in developing and developed countries around the world from 2000-01-01 to 2014-05-31. Findings 10 experimental studies were chosen in this review, including 3 randomized controlled trials. Among 10 studies, 8 found significant improved about the general knowledge of HIV/STD and all studies showed positive change in attitude and risk perception in the peer-led education. However, no studies found significant effect of peer education on the behavioral change regarding condom use, postponing sexual intercourses and the reduction of sexual partners, etc. The interaction of peer education and the quality of peer-educators plus other demographical factors such as socioeconomic status and religions may influence the effect of school-based peer-led education. Conclusion School-based peer education was demonstrated to be effective on the prevention of HIV/STD in knowledge and attitude improvement, similar with other kinds of peer education. Peer educators and interactions between educators and educatees play important roles in the peer education. Yet, the effect of school-based education still requires long-term assessment. DOI: 10.5353/th_b5320715 Subjects: Sexual health - Study and teaching HIV infections - Prevention Sexually transmitted diseases - Prevention Sex instruction for youth

In the fight against the HIV and AIDS pandemic, the South African government introduced different measures to address and manage the impact of HIV and AIDS. One of these strategies encompassed prevention and education programmes like the Peer Education Programme.Some factors were however identified, indicating that the Peer Education Programme might not be successful, which could be linked to the non-performance of HIV and AIDS Peer Educators.

South Africa faces a severe HIV epidemic and young people are heavily affected. Although AIDS awareness among young people in Africa is generally quite high and much research has been conducted on peer education, little is known about the perception of peer education as a HIV prevention strategy. The study draws on in-depth interviews with college students in Durban. The aim of this study is to investigate perceptions of peer educators and targeted audiences about the importance of peer education. In general, attitudes towards peer education are very positive. The findings from the study suggest that students perceive peer education as a key HIV strategy for reaching young people. Peer educators also benefit from the programme as they gain both skills and experience. However, attendance at peer education activities is generally poor and few students report that they had been exposed to peer education at their college. There are a number of barriers that impede participation in the peer education programme including lack of knowledge of activities, as well as concerns about the credibility of the source of the information.