The Perspectives of Health Professionals on Neonatal Genetic Screening

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Background: After completing the human genome, the project has created opportunities to improve the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of disease. However, the limitations in health professionals (HPs), genetic knowledge, technological resources, and a lack of scientific research prevent global genetic screening from being addressed. Objectives: The objective is to evaluate HPs’ knowledge, attitude, and future outlook toward neonatal genetic screening. Methods: The study was carried out in a cross-sectional survey. A simple random sampling technique was used to select health centers and healthcare professionals. Questionnaires were used to assess HPs knowledge, attitude, and future perspectives towards genetic disease screening. Results: Among the total of 384 HPs, 79.7% and 20.3% had good and poor knowledge on the basic idea of genetic screening, respectively. Similarly, 92.4% and 7.6% of HPs had good and poor knowledge, respectively, on the parental history of genetic disease. Besides, 68.8% and 31.3% of HPs had good and poor knowledge on the possibility of treating genetic diseases. Lastly, 81.3% and 18.5% of HPs had a positive and negative attitude towards genetic screening. Conclusion: The majority of HPs had good genetic knowledge and a positive attitude on the basic idea of genetic screening, parental history, and the possibility of treating genetic disease, respectively. However, the practice of genetic screening is not yet addressed in Ethiopia. Genetic HPs and nongenetic HPs have to encourage the concerned bodies, including the governmental system, to implement genetic screening in Ethiopia.