title: Thalassemia and premarital screening: potential for implementation of a screening program among young people in Pakistan.
abstract: Pakistan has a high prevalence of β-thalassemia (β-thal) but lacks a screening program for its prevention. This questionnaire-based cross-sectional study was conducted in six randomly chosen non medical universities to assess the students' knowledge of β-thal and premarital screening, and their attitude towards such a program. Comparison was made between the respondents' attitude towards premarital screening before and after providing them some information regarding the disease. Only 54.5% (207) of 380 students had heard of β-thal, with a mean knowledge score of 13.0 ± 4.4 out of 27 questions. Most respondents were aware of the concept of premarital screening. Out of 207 students, 60.4% wanted to know if they were carriers, 69.1% wanted to know their spouse's carrier status and 59.4% wanted premarital screening to be made mandatory in Pakistan. These figures increased to 72.5, 78.3 and 67.6%, respectively after provision of written information (p values: 0.03, 0.02, and 0.01, respectively). The positive attitude towards premarital screening with low background knowledge of the disease highlights the need of a mass awareness campaign and subsequent implementation of a premarital screening program.
authors.affiliation: The Aga Khan University, Medical College, Karachi, Pakistan. mirza009@gmail.com
authors.forename: Arslan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mirza
authors.forename: Alina
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ghani
authors.forename: Anam
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pal
authors.forename: Abeer
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sami
authors.forename: Sana
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hannan
authors.forename: Zohaib
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Ashraf
authors.forename: Sulala
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Iqbal
authors.forename: Umair Zafar
authors.initials: UZ
authors.lastname: Malik
authors.forename: Umar
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Hayat
authors.forename: Zafar
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Fatmi
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001294:Attitude to Health; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening; D010154:Pakistan; D011291:Premarital Examinations; D013334:Students / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013789:Thalassemia / Q000175:diagnosis*; D014495:Universities; D055815:Young Adult; D017086:beta-Thalassemia / Q000175:diagnosis