comfortable with people with HIV/AIDS

• Again, senior citizens are less tolerant of or comfortable with people with HIV/AIDS, and are less likely to be comfortable in any of the above situations. The proportion of Canadians over 65 who are comfortable in these scenarios ranges from 20 per cent who are comfortable with a friend or relative dating someone with AIDS to 52 per cent who are comfortable working in an office where a woman develops HIV/AIDS.
  
• Those who are Canadian-born are more likely to feel comfortable in all the above situations, as are those who know someone with HIV/AIDS, and those who are less apt to distance themselves from the issue.
  
• Self-rated knowledge of HIV/AIDS is also linked to whether people feel comfortable in all of these situations. This is also true of actual knowledge except with the example of having a close friend or relative dating someone with AIDS (where 40 per cent of those with low knowledge are comfortable and 42 per cent of those with high knowledge are). The degree of knowledge does not have any impact on whether Canadians are comfortable with this.
  
• Comfort with working with someone who has HIV/AIDS, having a child attend a school where a student has HIV/AIDS, and shopping at a neighbourhood grocery store where the owner has HIV/AIDS all increase with education and income. As such, those with the highest incomes or who are university graduates are most likely to be comfortable in these situations. Income and education do not, however, have an impact on whether one is comfortable with having a close friend or relative dating someone with HIV/AIDS or AIDS.
  
• Those with teenaged children are more likely to be comfortable with their child attending a school where a student has HIV/AIDS (60 per cent are comfortable with this), while those with children who are not yet in their teens are somewhat less comfortable (50 per cent are).
  
• When looking at the overall comfort index created with these scenarios, women are somewhat more likely to demonstrate a high level of comfort (38 per cent versus 31 per cent of men) with HIV/AIDS. Not surprisingly, as with the individual scenarios, comfort levels increase with education and income and decrease with age. Comfort levels are also linked to knowledge (perceived and actual) and to whether one knows someone with HIV