Knowledge and attitude toward hemoglobinopathies premarital screening program among unmarried population in western Saudi Arabia

OBJECTIVES: To assess the knowledge and attitude toward hemoglobinopathies premarital screening (PMS) program among unmarried population in Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 1039 unmarried males and females from the general population who fulfilled the eligibility criteria. Data was collected from July-December 2017, using an electronic questionnaire to assess the socio-demographic data, knowledge and attitudes of the participants regarding PMS. RESULTS: Approximately half of the participants had poor knowledge scores (51.1%), while 28.4% of them had fair and 20.5% had good scores. Individuals with an educational level of “university degree and above” had significantly higher knowledge than those with lower educational levels. Furthermore, 60.4% of the participants had a positive attitude toward PMS. The data was analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) Version 21 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, USA); and a Chi-squared test was used for comparisons between proportions and a p-value ≤0.05 was considered significant. CONCLUSION: Participants showed a lack of knowledge regarding PMS but they had a positive attitude towards the program. More efforts are required to raise awareness in the public regarding PMS, via social media and educational lectures in schools and universities. Additionally, early genetic screening may help improve test acceptance and higher impact.