PERCEPTION TOWARDS PREMARITAL MEDICAL SCREENING: A CROSS SECTIONAL ASSESSMENT AMONG YOUNG ADULTS IN QUETTA CITY, PAKISTAN

: Introduction: The aim of this study was to assess the perception of young adults toward premarital medical screening in Quetta city, Pakistan. Methods: A cross sectional, descriptive study design was adopted. Perception of young adults towards premarital medical screening was assessed through a pre-validated questionnaire. The questionnaire was distributed to 1266 respondents of both genders. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used for data analysis. All analyses were performed by SPSS v. 20 and p<0.05 was taken as significant. Results: Twelve hundred and sixty young adults participated in study with a response rate of 99.4%. Seven hundred and eighteen (57.0%) respondents were males and 924 (73.3%) belonged to age group of 18-23 years. Nine hundred and sixty four (76.5%) had no family history of heredity diseases. Although 1074 (85.2%) of the respondents had information about genetic diseases, 65% had little idea about premarital blood screening. Interestingly, while premarital screening was perceived as a good practice (996, 79.0%) and a method to save generations from genetic diseases (1152, 91.4%), 927 (73.6%) of the respondents still reported that they will not

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