Premarital Sickle Cell Genetic Screening Knowledge, Attitude and Practice Compared Among Married and Unmarried Youths in Nigeria

Abstract

Premarital sickle cell genetic screening is a test that determines the genotype of the intending couple before marriage. As a result, counseling is given before and after the test. This study assessed and compared the level of knowledge, attitude and practices of premarital sickle cell screening among married and unmarried youths in Epe, Nigeria. A cross-sectional descriptive research design was used to examine 370 participants, using stratified sampling technique. Data were collected with an instrument and analyzed, stating the mean, frequency and standard deviation. Scores were built for knowledge, attitude and practice. Chi-square test with p X 2 = 6.359, Cramer’s v=0.09, p =0.0116, df = 1) and married ( X 2 = 12.9325, Cramer’s v=0.10, p =0.0003, df =1) youths. Similarly, an association exists between attitude and practices of premarital sickle cell genetic screening for unmarried youth ( X 2 = 20.3077, p =0.0007, Cramer’s v=0.17, df = 1) but for married youths there was no association ( X 2 = 0.0168, p = 0.8969, Cramer’s v=0.08, df = 1). Furthermore, finding revealed that 77% of the married participants did not have sickle cell genetic screening test before marriage, while 67% of the unmarried participants were not willing to carry out the test, due to fear of the unknown and stigma. Conclusively, the level of knowledge of the participants’ was good (70.06%), attitude was negative towards practices of premarital sickle cell genetic screening. Therefore, continuous health education that focuses on sickle cell genetic screening test could improve the practices among the youth to avert the associated morbidity and mortality.