Consanguinity and willingness to perform premarital genetic screening in Sudan
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Published version (online first)
Author(s)
Elhadi, Yasir Ahmed Mohammed
Alrawa, Salma S
Alfadul, Esraa SA
Mahgoub, Esra Abdallah Abdalwahed
El-Osta, Austen
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Consanguineous marriage is prevalent in certain world regions due to cultural, economic, and social reasons. However, it can lead to negative consequences including an increased risk of genetic disorders in offspring. Premarital genetic screening (PMGS) is an important tool to identify and manage these risks before marriage. This study aimed to assess the magnitude of consanguineous marriage, knowledge of genetic diseases and PMGS, and attitudes and willingness to perform PMGS in Sudan. A national household survey was conducted using a multistage sampling technique, with a sample size of 2272 participants. Data were collected from December 2022 to March 2023 using an interviewer-administered questionnaire. A significant proportion of respondents (364/850, 42.8%) were married to consanguineal partners, with various types of relatedness. Moreover, 32.1% (242/755) of single respondents were planning to marry a close relative, signifying the likely persistence of consanguineous marriages in Sudan. The level of knowledge regarding genetic diseases and PMGS was relatively low in many states of Sudan, indicating the need for increased awareness interventions. A significant number of participants (85.2%) agreed that premarital screening is effective in reducing genetic diseases, whereas 71.2% supported the introduction of a mandatory PMGS program. Excluding married participants, 82.3% (1265/1537) of respondents were willing to perform PMGS, if implemented. These findings reflect the public positive attitude towards introducing the PMGS program and policies in Sudan and underscore the importance of addressing the knowledge gap of PMGS before such a potential implementation.
Date Issued
2023-08-01
Date Acceptance
2023-07-18
Citation
European Journal of Human Genetics, 2023
ISSN
1018-4813
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Journal / Book Title
European Journal of Human Genetics
Copyright Statement
© The Author(s) 2023. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
License URL
Identifier
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41431-023-01438-1
Publication Status
Published online
Date Publish Online
2023-08-01