ASSESSMENT OF ATTITUDE TOWARDS PREMARITAL GENOTYPE SCREENING FOR SICKLE CELL DISEASE AMONG UNIVERSITY STUDENTS IN NORTH WEST ZONE OF NIGERIA

This study assessed the attitude towards premarital genotype screening for sickle cell disease among university students in the North-West zone of Nigeria. A descriptive survey research design was adopted. The population comprised 70,530 undergraduate students in the ten Federal universities in the North-West zone of Nigeria. The researcher sampled 572 students through multi-stage sampling techniques, which comprised of cluster, simple random and proportionate sampling techniques. A researcher-developed close-ended questionnaire was used for data collection. Out of the 572 copies of the questionnaire administered, 534 (93%) were used for data analysis; the remaining 38(7%) were considered invalid as they were not duly filled by the respondents. Descriptive statistics of frequencies and percentages were used to describe the demographic characteristics of the respondents and answer to the research question was provided using means and standard deviations. Inferential statistics of a one-sample t-test was used to analyze the hypothesis at a 0.05 level of significance. The findings of the study revealed that the respondents have an insignificantly positive attitude towards premarital genotype screening for sickle cell disease (mean = 2.53 and p-value = 0.164). Based on the findings of the study, the researcher concluded that university students in the North-West zone of Nigeria have a positive attitude towards premarital genotype screening for sickle cell disease. The researcher recommended that university curriculum planners should include the importance of premarital genotype screening in the school curriculum and the need for religious societies in the universities such as the Muslim Student Society (MSS) and Fellowship Christian Society (FCS) to periodically organize programs aimed at sensitizing their followers about the importance of premarital genotype screening for sickle cell diseases to correct wrong attitudes.