PERCEPTION TOWARDS PREMARITAL MEDICAL SCREENING: A CROSS SECTIONAL ASSESSMENT AMONG YOUNG ADULTS IN QUETTA CITY, PAKISTAN Adeel Ahmed1 , Fahad Saleem*1, Qaiser Iqbal1 , Sajjad Haider1 , Adeela Anwer2 , Mohammed Anwar1

Introduction: The aim of this study was to assess the perception of young adults toward premarital medical screening in Quetta city, Pakistan. Methods: A cross sectional, descriptive study design was adopted. Perception of young adults towards premarital medical screening was assessed through a pre-validated questionnaire. The questionnaire was distributed to 1266 respondents of both genders. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used for data analysis. All analyses were performed by SPSS v. 20 and p<0.05 was taken as significant. Results: Twelve hundred and sixty young adults participated in study with a response rate of 99.4%. Seven hundred and eighteen (57.0%) respondents were males and 924 (73.3%) belonged to age group of 18-23 years. Nine hundred and sixty four (76.5%) had no family history of heredity diseases. Although 1074 (85.2%) of the respondents had information about genetic diseases, 65% had little idea about premarital blood screening. Interestingly, while premarital screening was perceived as a good practice (996, 79.0%) and a method to save generations from genetic diseases (1152, 91.4%), 927 (73.6%) of the respondents still reported that they will not opt for premarital blood screening before their marriages. However, 828 (65.7%) were in favor of premarital screening only if a law is approved by the healthcare authorities. The Chi square test was used for cross tabulation and no significant association was reported among study questions and demographic variables (p>0.05). Conclusion: The current study concluded that majority of the participants had little idea about premarital blood screening. Additionally, premarital screening was not perceived as an important procedure before marriages. This reflects the lack of information towards premarital screening and the need of providing health education in order to improve the perception towards premarital screening among young adults in Quetta city, Pakistan.