KNOWLEDGE AND ATTITUDE TOWARDS PREMARITAL GENOTYPE SCREENING AMONG WOMEN OF CHILD-BEARING AGE IN KUMO AKKO LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF GOMBE STATE

The prevalence of sickle cell anaemia has been shown to be on the increase in Nigeria. Therefore, preventive measures such as premarital genotype screening have been proposed as one of the ways of reducing the scourge of the disease. Therefore, this study was designed to assess the knowledge and attitude of women of child bearing age in Kuma Akko Local Government Area of Gombe State towards premarital genotype screening. The study adopted a descriptive cross-sectional design. A total of 296 respondents were sampled through simple random sampling technique and the collected data were analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20.0. Majority of the respondents 200(71.40%) were between the ages of 15-34 years old and 64(22.90%) of the respondents affirmed that they had a family history of sickle cell disease. In addition, 58.60% of the respondents demonstrated poor knowledge of premarital genotype screening while 57.10% exhibited negative perception towards premarital genotype screening and 63.20% exhibited poor attitude towards premarital genotype screening. There was a significant relationship between respondents with family history of sickle cell anaemia and their knowledge of premarital genotype screening. The study therefore recommends that efforts should be intensified by the governments and health workers in primary, secondary and tertiary level of healthcare deliveries, to raise awareness on the importance of premarital genotype screening in order to reduce the prevalence of Sickle cell anaemia in the locality.