Objective: This paper aims to describe human immunodeficiency virus/sexual transmitted infections (HIV/STIs) related knowledge, attitudes, practice and the prevalence of HIV/STIs amongst miners.
Methods: Two focus-group related discussions with a total number of 13 members including Community Advisory Boards (CAB) and 12 miners were conducted in a mining township in Yunnan province. Questionnaire surveys and HIV/STIs tests were conducted among 233 miners recruited by cluster sampling in two towns where the mines were located.
Results: The average age of respondents was 28 year old with 82.8% of them younger than 35 year old. 95.3% of the respondents attended the education level of junior middle school. AIDS related knowledge among miners was low. The percentage of right answers to the routes of transmission was only 54.4%. The ratio of self-reported prostitutes visits was 9.0%. The prevalence rates of Neisseria gonrrhoeae, HIV and Chlamydia trachomatis were 0.4%, 0.4%and 8.2% respectively. The correlation between Chlamydia trachomatis infection and education (P = 0.0347) was significant, and so was that between Chlamydia trachomatis infection and marriage status (P = 0.032).
Conclusion: This study showed that the awareness of HIV/STIs prevention was limited and the rate of condom use was low, suggesting that miners needed to be viewed as a key population in HIV/STIs prevention and control.