Knowledge and Perception of Premarital Genetic Screening Among Undergraduates of University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Kwara State

Premarital genetic screening (PGS) is a primary preventive strategy that includes enhancing the health and well-being of a woman and her spouse before becoming pregnant. This consists of premarital health advice and a general medical evaluation which checks potential partners for common inherited blood disorders including sickle cell anaemia and thalassaemia. This study investigated knowledge and perception of premarital genital screening among undergraduate students, University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Kwara State. A descriptive cross-sectional research design was used and 419 university students were selected in Ilorin using the purposive sampling technique. Data were collected and analyzed using the descriptive and inferential statistics using chi square and binary logistic regression with significance level set at 5%. Findings revealed that more than half of the respondents (52.7%) were between the ages 17-20. A high percentage of them were females and from 200 level. Majority of the respondents (83.8%) had adequate knowledge on premarital genetic screening. Majority of the respondents (74.9%) had good perception of PGS. Furthermore, the factors influencing PGS were prior knowledge (90%), cultural beliefs and attitudes (79.5%), Government policies (78.5%), family pressure (66.6%) and religious beliefs (71.4%). The study further revealed that there is no significant association between between knowledge of premarital genetic screening and perception of PGS. However, there was a significant association between religion, ethnicity, level of study and knowledge of PGS (p-value =0.012, 0.001, 0.023). Also, there was a significant association between age, faculty, level of study and perception of PGS (p-value= 0.002, 0.001, 0.007