Knowledge and Attitude Regarding Premarital Screening of Beta Thalassemia among the Students of A Selected College of South-24-Parganas, West Bengal, India

Das Palash; Mondal Srijana; Das Kamalika

Volume : VII, Issue : X, October - 2018

Knowledge and Attitude Regarding Premarital Screening of Beta Thalassemia among the Students of A Selected College of South-24-Parganas, West Bengal, India

Das Palash, Mondal Srijana, Das Kamalika

Abstract :

Introduction: Beta–thalassemia is a preventable disorder. This is one of the most common genetic diseases in India. Materials and methods: A descriptive study was conducted to assess the knowledge and attitude regarding premarital screening of beta–thalassemia among the college students of a selected college in South 24 Parganas, W.B. The conceptual framework adopted for the study was based on Rosenstock’s ‘Health Belief Model’. About 150 college students were selected as samples by non probability sampling technique to collect the data. A valid reliable structured knowledge questionnaire and Likert attitude statements were used for data collection. Results: The result revealed that college students had good knowledge score (53%) and moderately favourable attitude (64%). Significant relationship was found between knowledge and attitude on premarital screening of beta–thalassemia. There was significant association between knowledge score and gender, stream and living place, but there was no significant association between knowledge score and information regarding thalassemia and age. There was significant association between attitude score and age, gender, and stream but no significant association between attitude score and living place. Conclusion: The study had implications in different fields of nursing practice, nursing education, nursing administration and also in nursing research. Recommendation: A bigger study is required to generalise the findings of this study in order to change of behaviour for healthy future life.