A study on knowledge, attitude, and practice towards premarital carrier screening among adults attending primary healthcare centers in a region in Oman

BMC Public Health

Samir Al-Adawi²  Khalil S Al-Farsi¹  Allal Ouhtit⁴  Ishita Gupta⁴  Yahya M Al-Farsi³  Omar A Al-Farsi³ 

[1] Department of Hematology, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat, Oman;Department of Behavioral Medicine, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat, Oman;Department of Family Medicine and Public Health, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat, Oman;Department of Genetics, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat, Oman

关键词: Oman;    Hereditary diseases;    Premarital carrier screening;   

Others  :  1131534
DOI  :  10.1186/1471-2458-14-380

 received in 2013-11-12, accepted in 2014-04-09,  发布年份 2014

【 摘 要 】

Background

Despite that hereditary diseases are widespread among the Arab population due to high rates of consanguineous marriages, research regarding community awareness towards premarital carrier screening in some countries such as Oman, is extremely scarce. This study aimed to investigate knowledge and attitude towards premarital carrier screening (PMCS) in Oman.

Methods

A cross-sectional study was conducted using a self-administered questionnaire which was distributed to 400 Omani adults aged 20–35 who attended primary healthcare institutions at the South Batinah Governorate in Oman.

Results

The majority of the participants (84.5%) believed that PMCS was necessary, and about half of them (49.5%) supported the view of making PMCS compulsory. On the contrary, approximately one third (30.5%) of the participants reported that they were not in favor of taking the blood screening test. Overall, unwillingness to perform pre-marital testing was associated with female gender, younger age, being single, less education, and increased income.

Conclusion

Despite the relatively high level of knowledge, about one third of the participants were still reluctant to carry out premarital testing. Such attitude calls for immediate need for community-based campaigns to encourage the public to do premarital testing.

【 授权许可】

   
2014 Al-Farsi et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

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