Abstract

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The study assesses the effect of health education intervention programme on knowledge of premarital genotype screening among youths of Gwaram LGA of Jigawa State, Nigeria. To achieve the purpose quasi pre-test, post-test experimental design was used in this study as it compares a treatment with no-treatment condition. Participants are randomly assigned to either the treatment, or no-treatment group, and are measured or tested both before and after the health education intervention. The population for this study is 209,970 youths which is 45% of 466,600 population of Gwaram LGA, Jigawa, Nigeria. A sample size of one hundred and twenty (120) was selected as sample size for this study. A multi-stage sampling procedures involving stratified, simple random, purposive, proportionate and systematic sampling techniques were used to select participants for the study. A Descriptive statistic of frequencies and percentages, mean and standard deviation will be used to analyze the demographic characteristics of the respondents and research questions respectively. The hypothesis was tested using inferential statistics, one sample t-test was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The results revealed Effect on the knowledge of premarital genotype screening (t=2.133; p = 0.000), effect on the practice of premarital genotype screening (t= 2.988; p = 0.000), difference between experimental group and control group in knowledge of premarital genotype screening (t=3.022; p=0.000), difference between experimental group and control group in practice of premarital genotype screening (t=3.878; p = 0.000). Based on the findings of the study, the study concludes that Health education intervention programme on knowledge and practice of premarital genotype screening among youths is effective; There were significant difference in control and experimental group in knowledge and practice of premarital genotype screening before and after the health education intervention programme among youths; Based on the conclusion drawn, the following recommends were made: 1. Government: The government should establish and enforce policies that mandate premarital genotype screening as a requirement for marriage registration. 2. Ministry of Health: The Ministry of Health should conduct regular public awareness campaigns that educate communities about the importance of genotype screening and the potential risks of genetic incompatibility in marriage. 3. Community: Community leaders should partner with health institutions to organize regular genotype screening events and genetic education workshops.

Keywords: Knowledge, Practice, Premarital, Genotype, Screening, Youth