A study on knowledge, attitude, and practice towards premarital carrier screening among adults attending primary healthcare centers in a region in Oman

TLDR

Hereditary diseases are widespread among Arabs due to high consanguinity, yet community awareness of premarital carrier screening in Oman is scarce, highlighting a need for public education. The study aimed to assess knowledge and attitudes toward premarital carrier screening among Omani adults. A cross‑sectional survey of 400 Omani adults aged 20‑35 at primary healthcare centers in South Batinah used a self‑administered questionnaire. Most participants (84.5%) viewed PMCS as necessary, 49.5% favored making it compulsory, yet about one‑third (30.5%) opposed testing, and reluctance correlated with female gender, younger age, single status, lower education, and higher income.

Abstract

Despite that hereditary diseases are widespread among the Arab population due to high rates of consanguineous marriages, research regarding community awareness towards premarital carrier screening in some countries such as Oman, is extremely scarce. This study aimed to investigate knowledge and attitude towards premarital carrier screening (PMCS) in Oman.A cross-sectional study was conducted using a self-administered questionnaire which was distributed to 400 Omani adults aged 20-35 who attended primary healthcare institutions at the South Batinah Governorate in Oman.The majority of the participants (84.5%) believed that PMCS was necessary, and about half of them (49.5%) supported the view of making PMCS compulsory. On the contrary, approximately one third (30.5%) of the participants reported that they were not in favor of taking the blood screening test. Overall, unwillingness to perform pre-marital testing was associated with female gender, younger age, being single, less education, and increased income.Despite the relatively high level of knowledge, about one third of the participants were still reluctant to carry out premarital testing. Such attitude calls for immediate need for community-based campaigns to encourage the public to do premarital testing.