Awareness Regarding Health Hazards of Consanguineous Marriage among Saudi Adults in Medina, 2016
Journal Title: International Journal of Medical Research Professionals - Year 2017, Vol 3, Issue 1
Abstract
Background: Consanguineous marriages are strongly favoured in the Saudi population. It’s well known that consanguineous marriage is related to many health hazards to the offspring and the most important factor in its limitation is the awareness and education of the population of these hazards. Objectives: To determine the prevalence and socio-demographic determinants of consanguineous marriage as well as to assess the awareness and attitude towards the health hazards of consanguineous marriage among Saudi adults in Medina city, Saudi Arabia. Subjects and Methods: This is an observational cross-sectional study which is based on an electronic self-administered questionnaire that was distributed to Saudi adults in Medina through social media. A representative sample of around 2000 of participant living in various area of Medina was selected randomly. The questionnaire contains four sections; socio-demographic characteristics, the prevalence of consanguineous marriage and the causes behind favoring this marriage in our society, questions regarding the knowledge and awareness about inherited disease and its relation to consanguineous marriage and questions regarding the knowledge about the premarital counseling and the attitude towards the marriage if the results showed risk to their offspring. Results: The study population included a random sample of 1334 adults. Most of them (79.7%) were males and majority were Saudis (91.4%). Among ever-married subject (n=737), relative's marriage was reported by 40.8% of the participants. Of them (n=301), 87% married their cousins. Most of the participants (81.3) could recognize that consanguineous marriage increases the probability of genetic diseases. The commonest reported sources were mass media (40.5%), schools (29.5%) and health care specialist (19%). Only 50% of the participants could recognize that pre-marriage medical test helps in preventing the transmission of hereditary blood disease, sickle-cell anemia and Thalassemia. Majority of them (88.8%) knew that abnormal pre-marriage test cause social or psychological problems. Most of the respondents (81.8%) said that they would finish that marriage if they got abnormal results. Conclusion: This study showed high prevalence of consanguineous marriage among Saudi adults in Medina. Saudi Adults had good awareness regarding the health hazards of consanguineous marriage, had good awareness towards the premarital screening, and had negative attitude towards the consanguineous marriage if they informed about harmful effect of their offspring.
Authors and Affiliations
Khulood Mohammed Alharbi, Tahani Mohammed Alharbi, Maha Eid Alhejaili, Ahmed Ali Alsharif, Reem Fahad Alshenaifi, Basma Nabil Zahid, Sara Khaled Alrasheed
Keywords
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- EP ID EP542404
- DOI 10.21276/ijmrp.2017.3.1.035
- Views 76
- Downloads 0
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