Knowledge of premarital screening among male university students in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Background: In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, where the consanguineous marriage rate is high, premarital counseling is the service offered to young couples on their way to marriage to guide, educate, and prepare them for the establishment of a healthy family. Objective: To assess knowledge of premarital screening and their relation to socio-demographic background of male university students in Riyadh City. Materials and Methods: It was a cross-sectional study included a representative sample of male university students at King Saud University, Riyadh City, Saudi Arabia. A multistage random sampling technique was applied in three stages. In the first stage, one student from literate collage and one from scientific college were selected by simple random method. In the second stage, three levels were selected by random sampling from each college. In the third stage, about 50 students were recruited from each of the classrooms. A self-administered questionnaire consisted of two main parts was used; the first part was based on socio-demographic data and the second part dealt with the students’ knowledge about the hereditary disorder in premarital screening program. Result: The study included 320 male students. Their age ranged between 18 and 30 years with a mean of 21.2 years and standard deviation of ±1.6 years. They were almost equally distributed between participated two colleges (Science and Arts). Almost a quarter of students (23.1%) reported family history of hereditary diseases, whereas 10.9% of them reported personal history of hereditary diseases. Their main sources of information about premarital screening were friends (60.8%), television (35.9%), and medical courses (22.2%). Older, science college students, those of higher academic level and having information about premarital screening from school and from friends showed significant higher level of knowledge. Conclusion: This study highlights that knowledge of male university students in King Saud University in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia about the PMS program was insufficient in some areas such as transmission of hepatitis B and C viruses through sexual transmission and from mother to fetus. In light of our results, there is certainly a need for more information and education about the program.