Abstract
Parental awareness is the best way to prevent thalassemia major disease in children. So the knowledge of premarital screening and prenatal diagnosis helps to decrease the thalassemia disease in Pakistan. The objective of the present study was to assess the awareness among parents of children with thalassemia major regarding premarital screening and prenatal diagnosis. The descriptive study was conducted at two thalassemia centers (i) thalassemia centre, The Children’s Hospital & the Institute of Child Health Multan, Pakistan (ii) Fatimid Foundation Multan, Pakistan from 20th March 2019 to 20th June 2019. Total number of 300 parents of thalassemia major patients participated in this study. A structured interview schedule was used as a tool for data collection through convenient sampling. Of the 300 respondents, the majority of the respondents 201(67.0%) were fathers while 99(33.0%) of the respondents were mothers. Greater part of the respondents 177(59.0%) belonged to rural areas. The majority of the respondents 153(51.0%) had primary level of education. The greater part of the respondents’ family monthly income was very low between 5100-10000 PKR. Among the total respondents, 131(43.7%) reported that they had ‘no knowledge’ of premarital screening and prenatal diagnosis 111(37.0%). Majority 207(69.0%) of the respondents did ‘strongly agree’ that thalassemia disease affected their financial situations. Parents’ awareness about premarital screening and prenatal diagnosis was inadequate. There is a need to understand the density of problem and create awareness among thalassemia families and the general public about prevention in order to reduce the burden of disease in Pakistan.