Abstract

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The purpose of the study was to assess the practice of premarital genotype screening for sickle cell disease among university students in North-West zone, Nigeria. The study used a descriptive survey research design. The population comprised of 70,530 undergraduate students in the ten Federal universities of North-West zone, 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. 534 (93%) copies of the administered questionnaire were used for data analysis because 38(7%) were not duly filled by the respondents and as such they were considered invalid. Descriptive statistics of frequencies and percentages were used to describe the demographic characteristics of the respondents and to answer the research question, means and standard deviations were used. Inferential statistics of one sample t-test was used to analyze the hypothesis at 0.05 level of significance. Finding of the study revealed that the respondents do not significantly practice premarital genotype screening for sickle cell disease (mean = 2.49 and P = 0.707). Based on the finding of the study, the researcher concluded that university students in North-West zone, Nigeria do not practice premarital genotype screening for sickle cell disease. The researcher recommended thatthe university managements in North-West zone, Nigeria should make genotype screening a requirement for admission of students and also the need for health personnel in university health services in North- West zone, Nigeria to include counselling on premarital genotype screening for sickle cell disease as one of their programmes.

Keywords: Practice, Premarital genotype screening, Sickle cell disease, North-West zone.