RESUMEN
OBJECTIVES: To identify how nursing staff at two care levels in the western area of Malaga view Human immunodeficiency Virus infection (HIV/AIDS), evaluating differences that might exist in function of age, sex, professional status, work seniority, contact with infected people, perceived risk, information received and general information about the disease. DESIGN: A cross-sectional study with an analytic component. Stratified randomised sampling for the two levels gave a total of 156 subjects. SETTING: The primary and specialist health care levels in the western area of Malaga. PARTICIPANTS: Nursing staff at both care levels working for at least a year and belonging to the full-time staff. INTERVENTION: A self-administered questionnaire which gathered: personal and work characteristics, knowledge, attitudes, place where health care delivered, perceived risk, information received and contact with patients. MAIN RESULTS: In the main, the study group was composed of nurses (71.3%) and women (68.6%) with average age of 32.7 and work seniority of 9.1 years. CONCLUSIONS: Negative attitudes were found to run at 56% in Specialist Care and 32.3% in Primary, a result associated with these variables: work seniority, perceived risk, care level and information.