Participants

Students in the first and fourth study year were enrolled. Such selection enabled the recognition of different approaches to voluntary HIV testing at the beginning and at the end of university schooling. It also presented an indirect impact of education and growing up on testing approach over time. Participants were approached in all available classrooms during mandatory lessons on two randomly selected working days (Mondays and Thursdays). All ten schools were listed alphabetically and study recruitment lasted for one week in each school.

The principal investigator (PI, the first author of this paper) in this research made contact with all the schools to arrange for the time of questionnaire distribution. The questionnaires were distributed after the compulsory classes have ended, while students were still in the classroom. The PI provided a detailed explanation about the questionnaire and the study purpose, highlighting that the survey was voluntary and anonymous. In case of refusal to complete the questionnaire, the students were allowed to leave the classroom and no coercion was in place. The PI was at students' disposal for any questions related to the study topic, survey and questionnaire. The informed consent was provided before the paper questionnaire was handed over to the potential participant by the PI inside the classrooms.

Out of the invited 1,225 students, the response rate was 82.0%. The Ethics Committee of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Pristina temporally seated in Kosovska Mitrovica approved the study (No. 09-1608-1, issued on October 29, 2013).