Assessment of Perception Regarded Pre-marital Screening among Ain Shams University Students

Abstract

Premarital screening (PMS) is an important component of reproductive health. It is considered the safest method to save mothers and children from genetic diseases or even keep them healthy. It is a useful approach for discovering or diagnosis and treatment of unrecognized disorders. And Studies conducted about PMS revealed low knowledge of adolescent about this important issue. In addition, there is lack of educational programs about PMS in Egypt so the young people in Egypt need more information on reproductive health and access to services before they have their first child (Beameish, et al., 2003). The present study was aiming to assess the perception of premarital screening by students from knowledge & attitude towards premarital screening. A descriptive Study was conducted in the two faculties at Ain Shams University morning during teaching, 2 days/ week. A simple random sample was used; it included 1480 students El alson & Science faculties free from genetic diseases.

Data collected by using: 1- A Structured interviewing questionnaire: Arabic interviewing questionnaire. II – Likert rating scale. Field Work • The research was conducted at faculty of El alson and Science 2days/week at the morning during teaching until predetermined number. • First the researcher explained the aim of the study to each student, interviewed to gain their confidence and obtained their oral consent to participate in the study within the period. Each interview was completed with the period of (15-20 minute). Then questionnaire was applied to assess students’ socio demographic data, knowledge about premarital screening. Then Likert scale was applied to assess students' attitude regarding premarital screening. • The main results of the present study were as follows: The results of this study clearly showed that the total knowledge about premarital screening of studied sample about 75.34% of them had incorrect answers and 17.57% had incomplete correct answers, while 7.09% of them had correct answers in various aspects. While total attitude about 78.6% of studied sample were agreed about PMS. Finally, there was statistically significant difference between students’ knowledge and their attitude towards premarital screening.