Abstract

Premarital Screening Program Knowledge and Attitude among Saudi University Students in TABUK City 2019

Background: Saudi Arabia has a high prevalence of Inherited diseases such as Sickle cell anaemia (SCA), Thalassemia and hepatitis are chronic diseases that affect the individual quality of life, which can be limited by increasing the knowledge among the community. Objectives: To assess the level of knowledge and the attitude among Saudi Tabuk University students regarding premarital screening program. Subjects and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted from April 2019 to August 2019 among Saudi students of the University of Tabuk, both male and female. A self-administered questionnaire about knowledge and attitude of the Saudi community towards premarital screening program was used for data collection. It consists of 3 main sections; demographical data, student’s general knowledge about the screening program and the attitude of the students towards premarital screening. Results: The study included 437 students. The age ranged between 18 and 29 years with a mean ± SD of 21.5 ± 2.2 years. More than half of them (56.8%) were females. Overall, slightly less than half of the students (48.3%) had sufficient knowledge regarding premarital screening. Female (p=0.003), married (p=0.044) and were medical students (p=0.024) were more knowledgeable than their counterparts. Overall, almost two-thirds of the students (69.8%) had a positive attitude towards premarital screening. Conclusion: Although knowledge regarding premarital screening among Tabuk university students was insufficient among almost half of them, they had an overall positive attitude towards the program.

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