Thalassemia: a prevalent disease yet unknown term among college students in Saudi Arabia
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ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Thalassemia: a prevalent disease yet unknown term among college students in Saudi Arabia Duaa Ibrahim Olwi 1 & Leena Adnan Merdad 2 & Eman Kamal Ramadan 3,4 Received: 24 July 2017 / Accepted: 29 November 2017 # Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2017
Abstract Thalassemia is a life-threatening blood disorder that has a high prevalence in Saudi Arabia despite the implementation of mandatory premarital testing and the availability of genetic counseling. This study aimed to assess college students’ knowledge of thalassemia. A cross-sectional survey of a random sample of 920 senior students enrolled at King Abdulaziz University was conducted. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect information about thalassemia and socio-demographic characteristics. Of the 920 students, 445 (48%) had ever heard of thalassemia. Despite the mandatory premarital testing for thalassemia, only 50% of married students stated having heard of the disease. The mean thalassemia knowledge score was 4.4 ± 2.2 out of a maximum of 12. Knowledge was significantly influenced by university faculty, gender, and education outside of Saudi Arabia. Those who had heard of thalassemia had misconceptions about the disease characteristics and pattern of inheritance such as associating thalassemia with low iron levels. A substantial proportion of the participants had a low knowledge of thalassemia. This lack of awareness requires a reassessment of the goals and success of the premarital testing program, including the genetic counseling services, and also indicates the importance of emphasizing thalassemia in school curricula and promoting and scaling up existing thalassemia campaigns in the region. Keywords Thalassemia . Knowledge . Premarital testing . Prevention
Background Thalassemia is an inherited blood disorder that has a range of manifestations depending on the nature of the mutation (Galanello and Origa 2010; Harteveld and Higgs 2010). Although genetic testing is available and can detect thalassemia, its prevalence worldwide remains high (Nicole and Cousens 2010); thalassemia is considered the most common inherited single-gene disorder (Colah et al. 2010; Higgs et al.
* Duaa Ibrahim Olwi [email protected] 1
King Abdullah International Medical Research Center, Ministry of National Guard Health Affairs, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
2
Department of Dental Public Health, Faculty of Dentistry, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
3
Department of Community Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Azhar University, Cairo, Egypt
4
Department of Family and Community Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
2012). The high prevalence of thalassemia, its unique manifestations, and the lack of cure make it a global health concern (Wong et al. 2011). Thalassemia is unique to the Mediterranean, Sub-Saharan African, and Asian regions but is spreading to Europe and North America as a result of migration (Angastiniotis and Modell 1998). Saudi Arabia has one of the highe
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